


Roronoa Aela

by grace_adalyn8472



Category: One Piece
Genre: Badass Monkey D. Luffy, Brother-Sister Relationships, Caring Roronoa Zoro, F/M, Luffy x oc, Monkey D. Garp - Freeform, Mugiwara no Ichimi | Straw Hat Pirates, New World (One Piece), One Piece Universe, Original Character(s), Pirate King Monkey D. Luffy, Protective Monkey D. Luffy, Protective Mugiwara no Ichimi | Straw Hat Pirates, Protective Roronoa Zoro, Smart Monkey D. Luffy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-19
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-15 21:55:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 40,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29565741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grace_adalyn8472/pseuds/grace_adalyn8472
Summary: Roronoa Aela is the younger sister of esteemed pirate hunter, Roronoa Zoro. Aela will travel with the Straw Hat crew to help her brother and crew mates reach their dreams, and maybe even learn some things about herself along the way. I'm awful with summaries. Seriously. Just read it. I know this summary sucks ass. I swear my writing gets better in the actual story.
Relationships: Monkey D. Luffy/OC, Monkey D. Luffy/Original Character(s), Roronoa Zoro/OC, Roronoa Zoro/Original Character(s)
Kudos: 4





	1. Roronoa Aela

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Yo! So I'm going back through this story and editing some things. I'm changing the way Aela looks as well as her devil fruit power. Before she had the Shield Shield fruit, and now she has the Energy Energy fruit, basically making it so she's able to transfer and manipulate her energy. She can still create shields, but I wanted her power to be able to grow and be more versatile. If you're reading this for the first time, welcome! If you've already read this, I'm sorry! You might wanna go back and read it to make sure that some things are still the same. I'll be editing this gradually, so I'll make sure to make note of which chapters I've edited already and which I haven't.
> 
> Please enjoy!

"Zoro-nii you said it wouldn't take long to get to the next town!" I whined, trying to resist the urge to stomp my foot. "It took forever!" "Stop whining," he grunted. He was sitting cross legged in the boat, head reclined back and eyes closed. "I'm so hungry! Laaaand!" I cried triumphantly, reaching over the edge of the boat and shoving my hands in the water, trying and failing to push the boat ever faster towards land. My eyes grew big as we got closer and I began chanting.

"Land..land..land...laaaandd! Food food foooood!"

"Oi!" Zoro shouted suddenly. I got over excited as I usually did, and tried to jump out of the boat a little too soon, planting face first into the sand. I popped right back up though, and thrust my pointer finger into the air triumphantly. "Land!" I shouted for the final time, and made to take off towards the road that would hopefully lead us to a town.

"Aela!" I heard behind me, and suddenly my progress forward was jolted to a stop. I looked back towards my brother with a whine, my feet continuing to move but my body unable to. "Zorrrroooo-niiiii!" I whined, pulling on my shirt that he'd grabbed on to. "Let go!" I pinched his hand but it was to no avail, as Zoro just rolled his eyes and pulled me closer so I was forced to face him.

"Meet me at the town bar in an hour, and don't eat too many sweets. Stay out of trouble," he grunted again, and I quickly nodded. "K Zo-Zo," I agreed, and he sighed, making me grin. He hated that name.

My brother and I quickly parted ways and I made my way into town. The first place I was stopping? A sweet shop of course. I hummed to myself as I passed a variety of stores, smiling at the vendors sweetly. "Yay!" I cried, finally setting my eyes on a small bakery. My stomach growled just thinking about the awesomny goodness inside, and I rubbed my hands together in excitement before running towards the store.

"Sweets!" I shouted, bursting my way inside. There was a lady at the counter that jolted a bit as I did this, but then quickly continued what she was doing, muttering something about 'dumb kids..'

My mouth began watering looking at all of the treats piled on for display and I slid back and forth from end to end, muttering to myself. "Which one should I get? The strawberry pie looks amazing but that triple chocolate cake looks perfect! Are those cookies?!" I yanked on my hair in distress, but finally, a solution popped into my head and I smiled, eyes lighting up.

"Excuse me," I cleared my throat politely in front of the shop woman, and she gave me a dry look. "Yes?" "I'd like to get three slices of your triple chocolate cake, a dozen of your peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, and one slice of strawberry pie. Please." I ended, remembering my manners. The woman's eyes went wide, but she nodded and quickly gathered up my order.

I smiled in content as I walked down the road through the town, holding my bag of sweets in one hand and finishing off my fifth cookie in the other. I made my way to the bar, humming a song that had been stuck in my head for a while. I finally found the bar after getting lost three or four times, and asking an older couple for directions (sense of direction was definitely hereditary in this case). Making my way inside the bar, I walked over to the front counter, automatically taking in my surroundings as I did so, and was taught to do by my brother.

I got a few weird looks but was mostly ignored and sat down on a bar stool right as the bartender made her way towards me. "Hello!" she greeted cheerily, and I smiled, watching a little girl come up beside her with a notebook in her hand. "What can we get for you?" I thought about ordering food but was still pretty hyped up on sweets. "I don't really want anything right now. I'm actually waiting for someone. Has a man carrying three swords made his way through here yet?"

The woman stiffened a bit then, which I noticed, and in turn my eyes sharpened. I retained my relaxed smile and facade though, hoping that it would calm her nerves. The little girl, her daughter I'm presuming, spoke up then. "We saw him! He came to the bar and was really nice to me. He saved me from Helmoppo's pet wolf." "His pet wolf, huh?" I confirmed, rubbing my forehead. And he told me to stay out of trouble… I thought to myself wearily.

"Ye-huh!" the little girl replied excitedly. "I'm afraid the man you're looking for has been arrested," the woman spoke up then, and I looked up sharply. "What?" I questioned, and I saw her tense even more. "I'm sorry," I apologized immediately, feeling guilty. "I didn't mean to scare you. That man is my brother and I'm just worried about him. Can you tell me what happened after the wolf incident?"

The woman nodded in understanding. "I understand your concern," she said, and pulled her daughter closer to her. Her eyes filled with tears then and she sniffed, "After he saved my daughter from the wolf, your brother made a deal with Helmoppo. He agreed to be arrested if only they would leave my daughter be. He made a deal with him about lasting one month at the marine base without food or water. I'm so sorry," she finished. "Don't be sorry," I waved her off, and she gaped. "How can you say that?"

"It's not like it's a death wish or anything," I assured her. "Zoro's tough. He'll be fine." I'll make sure of it, I said to myself.

Zoro was older than me by 3 years. He was 19, I was 16. He was of course, stupidly over protective, and that had a lot to do with the fact that he practically raised me. We had some of the same physical characteristics, and if it wasn't obvious we were siblings due to physical qualities, once you got to know us, it definitely became more obvious. I'm more bubbly than brother of course, but that's not saying much. He's not exactly the friendliest guy in the seas.

I was short at 5 foot 2 inches; Zoro was tall...well, tall-er, coming in at around 5 foot 11. I came up to his shoulders, on a good day. He was muscular, with broad shoulders; I was curvy and built compactly; I was skinnier than I wanted to be, and aimed to tone my muscles up a bit more. Zoro had lightly tanned skin, which I had as well, but I definitely burned much easier than he did. I resembled a lobster when I got too much sun, he just darkened up more.

While Zoro and I both have green hair, the shading was different thanks to eating my devil fruit. My mint green hair had several streaks of white going through it. It reached about shoulder length. Bangs swept across my forehead and rested in between my eyes. Zoro had forced me to cut them in the past as the longer length caused me to move them out of the way every 30 seconds, interrupting our training and causing me to become distracted. I had several scars as a result of those distractions, so I made sure to cut them myself when they became too long.

Our eyes were the biggest distinction between the two of us. Zoro had dark brown eyes which darken into almost black when he gets angry. I too, previously had brown eyes, until my devil fruit lightened those up as well. My brown eyes became a very light blue, with a constant ring of white around the iris.

Unlike my brother, I have no piercings, but I do have a tattoo on my left calf muscle of a compass with blue and purple watercolors surrounding it. I got it last year for my 15th birthday, and it's my favorite feature. I've got a bitchin' case of tattoo fever right now though. My skin felt as though it was literally itching for new ink.

Although Zoro was older than me, I was just as protective towards him as he was of me. We really only had each other growing up, and grew ridiculously close because of that. I looked out for him, he looked out for me. It would never change.

"Thank you so much for the information," I said getting up from my seat and bowing towards the woman and her daughter. I turned around to leave the bar, but was stopped by the woman grabbing my arm. "Wait," she said, and I turned towards her curiously. "If you don't have anywhere to stay tonight, as a thank you for your brother saving my daughter, we would be humbled if you chose to stay in our spare room upstairs."

I smiled at her brightly. "That's very kind of you. I'll gladly take up your offer," she smiled in relief, but her smile dropped a bit as I continued. "On one condition." "Yes?" she said, hesitant. "If I'm going to be staying here I need to at least earn my keep. I'm an awesome server!" I said brightly, giving her a thumbs up. The woman went to argue but then stopped, obviously sensing my stubbornness. "Well," she began, "we are actually short staffed. I suppose that would be alright," she nodded.

"Awesome!" I shouted, giving her a double thumbs up. Her daughter giggled and I threw her a wink. "Before all of that though, I need to go find my idiot brother." "I understand. Please be careful," she said in a motherly tone. "I'll be fine," I confirmed, touched by her concern.

Suddenly, I felt a tug on my shirt and looked down to see the little girl peering up at me. "Tell your oni-chan I said thank you for rescuing me," she said in a sweet voice, and I grinned towards her, kneeling down to her level. "Absolutely!" I said, and reached into my bag for my sweets.

Her eyes lit up when I pulled out a cookie, and she immediately snatched it out of my hand, making me burst into laughter, and causing her mother to gasp. "Rika! Don't be so rude!" she scolded. "It's fine!" I said, still giggling. "What do you say?" her mother said, nudging her daughter.

"Fank fu," the little girl, Rika said, smiling at me through a mouthful of cookie. "You're very welcome!" I replied, ruffling her hair before standing up to my full height again. "I'll be back soon. I'm just going to see what's going on with my brother and this Helmeppo guy. Bye for now!" I waved, and left the store in search of the marine base for my idiot brother.


	2. Idiot Brother

I finally made it to the marine base, which was covertly hidden behind a giant wall (sarcasm). Eventually, I figured out a way to peek over the wall, clicking my tongue at what I saw. Zoro was tied up in the middle of their yard. He looked like he was passed out, but I couldn't see any obvious wounds so I guessed he was only sleeping.

I jumped over the wall with an oomph, my short legs making the jump even bigger than it actually was, and casually walked over to Zoro. "Oi," I started, kicking him lightly with my boots. Zoro peaked at me with one eye before opening them fully towards me. "What's up?" he said casually, and I sweat dropped. "What's up?" I repeated. I kicked him more roughly. "Oi!" he shouted at me. "What's the big idea?" "The big idea is that you told ME not to get into any trouble, and look where the hell you ended up!" I finished, shaking my fist at him.

"Hmph," he grunted, sniffing. "Whatever. That idiot Helmoppo annoyed me." "Right," I nodded slyly. "I bet helping the little girl had nothing to do with it." "Whatever," he grunted, and I rolled my eyes. Always the tough guy…

"So a month, huh?" I questioned, and he nodded. "Yeah, guess so." "Well, that's great. You better be glad I've already found somewhere to stay or I'd kick you harder baka! I hope you understand that unless I come feed you, you've sentenced yourself to die." At this, Zoro rolled his eyes. "Thanks for that little sister but I'm good. I've got strong will. You don't need to come feed me and I don't want you near here with dumb-ass Helmoppo liable to come around whenever he wants." "Oh so you're allowed to risk your life and be tied up without food and water for a month, but I can't even come near the vicinity? Yeah, right," I snorted.

"I'll be back to feed you and give you water," I confirmed. At this point I kneeled down and reached inside of my bag for the rest of the cookies. I saved you a piece of cake and the rest of the cookies. "Aela what did I say about too many sweets?" he scolded. "You should be glad I got these or you would be starving right about now!" I argued. "Tch," he replied, but ate the cookie when I offered it to him, and drank the water I had in my bag right after.

"Just watch yourself when you come around here," he relented. "I won't be able to help you if you get into trouble." I made to argue with him again but stopped when I saw that he was truly worried. "I'll be fine Zo-Zo," I said, and he rolled his eyes but nodded.

Eventually I made my way back to the bar. I began working at the bar, and for the next three weeks I waitressed during the day, and after work snuck my way back and forth to my brother, feeding him and making sure he was hydrated. One afternoon at the bar was particularly busy, and I grew upset as I realized that I wouldn't be able to bring food to Zoro. Rika, who'd I'd gotten close to these past three weeks asked me if everything was okay, and I told her.

"I can do it!" she offered, and I immediately shook my head. "No way," I said, and she pouted. "It's way too dangerous." "I can do it Aela-chan!" she argued, and I sighed. I wasn't able to get food to him yesterday either, and I knew he would be starving. "Fine," I said, extremely reluctant. "Be very very careful, Rika! I need you to check around the perimeter like I taught you before you go over the wall. If you see Helmoppo what should you do?" "Kick him in the coconuts!" she shouted, and I grinned, pleased. "That's right," I nodded, and gave the girl a quick hug after supplying her with Zoro's food. I went back to serving the customers, trying not to bite my nails in worry for the girl. If anything happened to her I would never be able to forgive myself.

An hour eventually passed, and I was about to go look for the girl myself until finally, I felt a familiar energy coming into the building. "Rika!" I shouted, rushing towards her. "What took you so long?" I said, kneeling down and grasping her shoulders. "I didn't mean to Aela-chan!" she said apologetically. "I got caught by Helmoppoo and.." "What?" I cried, shocked.

"Are you okay?" I cried, turning the small girl in my hands looking for any injuries. She giggled as I kept spinning her, and I heard another laugh from above, which made me stop for a second. "Shishishi," I heard, and looked up to see two people standing close to Rika. I cursed myself for not being aware of them earlier. I was distracted and didn't sense them. I slowly stood up and slid Rika behind me.

"Hello," I said cautiously. One of the boys appeared to only be a little older than Rika. He had pink hair and glasses and was breathing very quickly as though he were nervous. I moved my sight to the person. He was taller than the boy, taller than me but a bit shorter than my brother. He had black shaggy hair, and a scar under his right eye. He was wearing a red vest, shorts, and a straw hat on top of his head.

"Hello!" The boy with the hat replied, grinning cheerily. "Rika do you know these people?" I asked the girl and she made to move from behind me. I allowed the movement but kept a hand on her shoulder just in case. "Of course! These are my new friends. They helped me get away from the scary man!" I looked up, surprised. "Thank you," I said, reaching my hand towards the taller boy. "I don't know what kind of trouble she got herself into.." "Hey!" the girl said indignantly, but I continued, "but I appreciate you being there for her when I wasn't."

"It's no problem!" the boy said. "My name's Roronoa Aela." "Roronoa?!" the boy with pink hair said, taking a step back. "You can't be related to Roronoa Zoro!"

"Yeah, I am," I said nodding. "That's my older brother," I confirmed. "Woah!" the black haired boy said, and I looked towards him to see stars in his eyes. "You both have to join my crew!"

"What do you mean?" I said. "What kind of crew?" "My pirate crew!" he said proudly. "My name's Luffy and I'm gonna be king of the pirates!"

"Really?" I said in excitement, almost bouncing. "That's so cool!" "I know!" he replied, rubbing a finger under his nose. "Shishishishi."

"My name's Coby," the pink haired boy behind Luffy said, and I waved towards him. "Nice to meetcha!"

Luffy opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, I heard the most annoying, grating voice echo through the bar. "I'm hungry! Let us all eat for free! HeaaHeaa! Hey barmaid, bring me some booze!"

I looked over to see Helmoppo and his men entering the bar. Any of the other customers we had quickly got up and fled, making room for the man who plopped down at one of the tables. He leaned back in the chair and propped his feet on to the table, making me grit my teeth. I just washed that table! "Excuse me?" he said again, his voice grating. "Could we get some service around here?"

"Excuse me," I said to Luffy and Coby, who were watching the situation tensely. "Quit dawdling girl! Hurry up!" I grabbed the bottle of wine and made my way over to his table, putting on my waitress face. "Sorry for the wait," I said politely, and made to pour the wine into his glass.

"You should be," he sneered and I bit my lip. I turned around and began walking towards the bar again when I heard it. "I've been rather bored lately..I think I've decided to execute Zoro tomorrow instead of waiting out the full month. I'm looking forward to his blood being spilt. Heaaaheaaaa." I stopped, my blood boiling. Who the hell did that asshole think he is?

I quickly turned around, making my way towards the table, fingers closely tightly around the bottle of wine. I tapped Helmoppo on the shoulder and he turned around, eyebrow raised. Before he could say anything, I took the bottle of wine and slammed it over his head, breaking the bottle over his skull. Wine and pieces of glass went everywhere, and suddenly, Helmoppo was on the ground and I was surrounded by men pointing their guns at me.

"Who do you think you are girl?" the man on the ground shouted, holding his head. "How dare you! I'm going to tell daddy!" I smiled at him darkly and he shivered. Before his men could stop me I reached down and grabbed the disgusting man by his collar, holding him up to my face. He shivered when he saw my eyes, the white iris beginning to glow a little. "I hope you do tell daddy," I mocked, voice low. "I'll beat his ass too. You're a dead man walking for thinking you can kill my brother." "Brother?" he said, and then his eyes lit up.

"Roronoa Aela!" he said. "I recognize you now! Looks like we've killed two birds with one stone, so to speak. Men, grab her!" he commanded, and before I could blink, my arms had been trapped behind me, I was shoved to the ground, and a gun was up to my head. "Aela!" I heard Rika shout. "Stay back Rika!" I shouted and watched as her mother came and grabbed her, shoving her behind her quickly.

I closed my eyes tightly, grunting when a foot dug into my spine. "You're dead you little shit," the man holding me chuckled, shoving his gun tighter to my head and cocking it back. "No!" I heard from Rika again. I had no time to activate my devil fruit. Sorry brother….

Before he could shoot, I heard a loud, "Hey!", and felt a rush of wind fly over my head. I gasped as I was released from the hold, and looked up to see that all the men surrounding me, along with Helmoppo, had been swung into the wall of the bar. I felt a presence in front of me and looked up to see Luffy stepping in front of me. "Are you okay?" I heard beside me, and nodded gratefully when Coby helped me up from the ground.

"I'm fine," I confirmed, looking to Luffy. "Thanks for that," I said, and he glanced back at me. "Thought I was dead there for a second," I chuckled. "No problem" he smiled, looking back towards the men. "I hate guys like him. This guy is scum," he said, and I readily agreed. "Aela!" I heard and looked back to see Rika running towards me. "Hey there!" I said, ruffling her hair. "Go back to your mom okay? Everything's fine." She looked like she was about to argue, but nodded, tears in her eyes, and did as I said. I looked forward and marveled at how Luffy had somehow managed to shove all those men into the wall like that. He had to be crazy strong.

"Don't you know who I am boy? I'm Captain Morgan's son!" "So what?" Luffy replied, and I snorted. "So what? I'll have you executed! You and the wench behind you along with her brother!" I grit my teeth and made to step forward again when Luffy's words made me stop. "I could care less who you are!" he said, and I watched as he stepped forward towards the dumb ass man. "People like you make me sick! How bout you fight me yourself like a man instead of your dad fighting your battles for you, you big baby!" Luffy shouted and I burst into laughter.

Helmoppo's face turned purple with embarrassment and anger which made me laugh harder. I could already tell that being on this guy's crew was going to be one hell of a ride!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> till next time!


	3. Taking Out the Trash

"I can't believe that just happened…" I said, watching in disbelief as the statue that Luffy knocked down crashed onto the ground. "How the hell..did his arms..stretch?" I said to myself, fascinated. Coby and I walked over to where Zoro was still tied up. "Yo!" I greeted, and he scowled at me. Coby cowered behind me but I just rolled my eyes. His mean looks don't scare me.

"What the hell are you doing here, Aela?" he said, and I was confused. "What the hell do you mean?" "I told you to be careful coming around here! There's military officials everywhere. You're gonna get caught! I still have ten days…"

"And you're gonna get executed!" I shouted, cutting him off, and he stopped. "What the hell do you.."

"Helmeppo never intended to wait out the full month to execute you.." Coby broke in, and I looked to see that he was already working on freeing Zoro from his ropes. "That's right," I nodded, eyes sharp. "He was gonna kill you out of boredom," I growled. "He's planning on executing you tomorrow." "Bastard…" Zoro cursed.

Coby and I worked together to try and break the knots, but they were tied pretty tight. "Damn knots…" I went to reach for my knife that I always kept holstered on my thigh but it wasn't there. "Son of a bitch! Zoro where's my knife?!"

"The one you sold at the last town we were at? The one you sold so you could get more sweets?!" Zoro growled out at me, and I sweat dropped. "Oh yeah…" Coby fell down to the ground anime style, before bouncing back up a second later when we heard someone yell, "Hold it right there!"

I looked over from where I'd begun gnawing on the ropes with my teeth to see Helmoppo and his shit load of marines headed right towards us. Luffy had left to get Zoro-nii's katanas, only when Zoro agreed to join his crew of course though. I had already decided that we would be joining, but I made sure not to tell Zoro that; he tends to get rather pissy about that kind of stuff.

"The three of you have committed treason and will be executed on the spot," Helmoppo sneered, and at his words I released the rope from my mouth and took up a defensive stance in front of Zoro and Coby. "Committed treason? Against who?" Coby shouted bravely. When Helmoppo threw an evil smile in his direction he hid behind Zoro and shook in fear, making me sigh. "Against me of course," he smiled, and I scoffed.

"Sounds like someone is full of himself," I shouted over to him, and his face turned red, and then his smile became darker. "Men, prepare to fire!"

Coby began to cry in fear when the marines raised their guns toward us, and I felt anger rush over me for making my new friend cry. "This is very interesting what you all are doing," Helmoppo said casually. "Were you three and straw hat planning a coup?"

"Something like that," I said and he looked my way. "It is a pitty that I have to kill you Roronoa Aela," he said, and my eyebrow rose. "Oh?"

"Yes," he continued, "You and I could go far in our conquests," he finished, licking his lips. I gagged, my stomach literally turning at his words and actions, and heard Zoro growl. "The only place you and I will ever be heading together is the cemetery after I kill you. You'll be the one in the box," I winked. Zoro snorted and Helmoppo choked. "You bitch!"

I shrugged. "Guilty." "It seems the three of you along with straw hat have underestimated me." I ignored Coby's indignant cry of, "Three?!" and readied myself when the marines aimed their guns toward us again. I got in front of Coby and Zoro, naturally settling into my fighting stance; one leg behind, one in front, solar plex and skull protected by arms.

"Aela!" Zoro said, his voice full of panic. "You can't handle that many bullets!" I could hear him struggling with the ropes, trying in vain to loosen them. "You can't either Zo-Zo," I said, throwing a grin towards him. "You might be strong Roronoa Aela," Helmoppo began, "but not even you are strong enough to withstand this kind of attack."

"You might be surprised," I said, and he grinned evilly.

"Fire!"

The guns were shot, the bullets racing towards us. "Aela!" Zoro shouted. I closed my eyes, trying to block out the chaos. I felt the sting of a bullet hit my leg, but before I could feel more, I felt a huge swish of air in front of me. My eyes shot open and I gasped at surprise when I saw that Luffy was suddenly in front of me. "Luffy no!" I shouted, ready to push him away, but was even more shocked when I saw that the bullets were bouncing off of him.

"What in the hell…" I said breathlessly, fascinated. "What the hell?" I heard Zoro share my sentiments. "Shishishishi!" Luffy laughed. "That won't work on me!" And he was right. Every single bullet, except the one in my leg, had bounced off of the boy and right back towards the marines, who looked about ready to shit their pants.

I grabbed Luffy's arm and turned him towards me, checking for wounds. "Are you okay? How…" He cut me off laughing, and grabbed my hand from where'd I'd been running it over his shoulders and chest checking for wounds. I didn't see any blood but…. "Shishishi I'm fine Aela," he began, and released my hand. "I'm a rubber man, see?" He took his hand and put it to his mouth, stretching. His mouth just stretched!

"Holy shit…" I breathed, and grinned, jumping up and down. "That's so cool! Zo-zo did you see that?" I said, pointing at Luffy and looking at my brother. "That's not important right now!" Zoro shouted, and suddenly looked down at something. "Aela damn it you're bleeding!" I looked down and grimaced. That fuckin' hurt!

"Ouch!" I shouted, grabbing my leg, and everyone sweat dropped. "You're just now feeling it?!" Coby shouted, and Luffy laughed. "Shishishi! Oh yeah! I brought your swords Zoro. I didn't know which one was yours so I brought all three."

"They're all mine," Zoro replied, and I nodded. "I use a three sword style technique." "That's so cool!" Luffy said, and I laughed. "Give em here," the green haired man grunted. Luffy stopped then, looking seriously at my brother, and then me. "If you take these swords right now, you'll be an enemy of the government. Are you prepared for that?" "What are you, the devil's son?" Zoro replied, and I snorted.

"Excuse me?" a grating voice said, and we all turned. "Did you all forget about me!" Helmoppo shouted. I turned around grinning. "Who the hell could forget that butt ugly face?" "Whaaaaaaaaaaaat?" Helmoppo shouted, and I giggled.

"What are you all doing standing around?" Helmoppo shouted to his men. "Shoot them!" "I'll be a part of your damn crew," Zoro shouted, panicking a bit when he watched me get in front of him again. "Just gimme the damn swords!"

Blocking out what was going on behind me, I held out a hand, grinning when a visible shield formed in front of me. The shield looked like it was made of air. It was white around the edges, and clear towards the middle. (If you guys have ever seen The Incredibles, imagine Violet's shield at this point, that's Aela's power).

"Woah!" Coby exclaimed, the boy looking at me now with wide eyes. I winked at him. He wasn't just looking at my shield right now. When I used my devil fruit, my eyes changed. Like I stated before, my brown eyes lightened to an icy blue when I ate my devil fruit, along with a permanent ring of white located around the pupil. When I activated my devil fruit, the white ring expanded to where it looked as though my eyes were glowing white. I think I looked pretty damn cool.

I heard the marines and Helmoppo gasp in surprise, and grinned in delight. "Yes! It worked!" and then frowned when the shield began fading in and out, before disappearing completely, allowing the bullets that the shield had stopped to come through. I prepared myself for the sting of bullets, closing my eyes and still holding my hands out, but before they hit, Zoro had leapt in front of me. He had a sword in each hand and one in his mouth, and was blocking the bullets from hitting their mark.

"Make one move closer and you die," Zoro warned the marines around him. "Today, my sister and I officially become criminals, having fought the marines," Zoro announced expertly, sword still in his mouth. "We'll become pirates, that I can promise you. Know this though. While I'm with you, the only thing I dedicate myself to is fulfilling my ambition."

Luffy smiled. "Which is?"

"To be nothing less that the World's Greatest Swordsman." I smiled with pride and inwardly agreed. I would be right next to him when he did it. "If somewhere along the way I have to give that up, then I want you to accept responsibility," Zoro added. "After which you get to apologize to me."

"The World's Greatest Swordsman," Luffy repeated, thinking. "Sounds awesome to me. The King of the Pirates wouldn't have any less than the best on his crew." At Luffy's words my heart leapt a bit. His confidence was inspiring,and I knew that this guy would die to protect his dream, and that's someone I would be happy to follow through life.

"From this point on," Zoro smirked, "no matter if I'm a criminal or not, I will spread the name Zoro throughout the world."

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU ALL STANDING THERE FROZEN FOR?! KILL THEM ALL RIGHT NOW!" I heard a huge yell come from behind me.

"Who the hell's this guy?" I asked Zoro and Coby. "That would be the esteemed Captain Morgan," he said, rolling his eyes.

Captain Morgan was an extremely tall man. He had a large amount of muscles that most definitely overpowered his brain cells. He had very blonde, almost white hair and a steel jaw-like an actual jaw made of steel, probably from an old injury. He was appropriately deemed 'Axe Hand Morgan,' probably because of the fact that his right hand was gone and had been replaced with an actual axe. Quite an appropriate name for the man if I was being honest.

"Oi, Zoro, Aela, duck!" I dove for the ground as directed, and watched with big eyes as Luffy unleashed hell upon the marines. "Gomu gomu whip!" He yelled, and the boy extended his leg out, kicking all of the soldiers away. I watched Helmoppo's mouth drop in shock and laughed out loud. "That's so freaking cool!" I shouted, excitement soaring through me. This guy's my captain?

"A demon and a rubber boy?" I heard the Marines talking to themselves. "We don't stand a chance." I frowned when I heard them. They don't sound like bad people. They seemed a little reluctant to follow through with their captain's orders, and I realized then what was happening. None of the men respected their captain, they followed him out of pure fear, nothing more.

My conclusion was supported with Captain Morgan's next words. "This is a direct order: every marine that just spouted weakness, pull your gun out and shoot yourself!" I gasped in shock. What the hell?

"I can't do anything with weak soldiers," the man finished, and my face turned dark. Coward! "What babies," Zoro grumbled, preparing his swords again. "This'll be a piece of cake." I readied myself as well, concentrating on bringing my shield forward. Before anything else happened though, Luffy had charged forward. He cut straight through the marines, heading straight towards their over confident 'leader.'

I watched to see if any of the other marines would approach, but relaxed when I saw that they were in as much awe as the rest of us, abandoning their weapons and watching as the rubber boy made his way towards Captain Morgan. One well aimed kick to the face later, and Captain Morgan was out. The huge man hit the ground with a giant thud, and Luffy began scolding the cowardly wimp for ruining Coby's future dream of becoming a marine. He finished the fight out with a few more punches to the face.

"Straw hat!" a familiar voice rang through the air, and I groaned. "I would stop if you value your friend's life!" I looked over and cursed when I saw that Helmoppo had Coby in his grip, holding a gun to his head.

Luffy completely ignored the idiot, throwing another punch at Morgan. "Are you stupid or something?" Helmoppo said, shoving the gun at Coby harder, making the boy whimper, and I grit my teeth. "I said stop. If you would pay attention to me, I have a hostage situation here that calls for your attention!"

"Hey," Zoro said quietly, stopping Luffy from continuing his assault. Luffy finally stopped and looked towards the activity. "If you value your squatty little friend's life, you won't move a muscle!" He warned, and I scoffed in disgust when I noticed he was shaking like a leaf. He's too much of a coward to even follow through with his own threat!

"I'm serious - one move and I'll shoot him, I swear!" I highly doubted that, and I guess Luffy did too, because he just smiled. I noticed when he did that Coby stood straighter, and could practically feel the courage now soaring through him. "Luffy listen!" the boy began. "Don't let anything that happens to me stop you, no matter what. Even if I die!"

I smiled in pride towards the boy. I'll be damned. He's not as big of a coward as I thought! Luffy began walking forward towards Helmoppo and Coby. Luffy began readying himself to send the dumbass flying, and the daddy's boy began visibly panicking, making more empty threats. Suddenly, multiple things happened.

Coby shouted a quick warning as Morgan stood up and had almost brought his axe down on Luffy's head. I quickly threw my hands out, erecting a shield over Luffy's head. The axe slammed down on the shield just in time, as the tip of the weapon had already made contact with the boy's straw hat. I grunted in pain when the shield shook, threatening to give out. Luffy looked up in awe at the shield, stars in his eyes.

I tensed when Morgan growled and threw the axe up again, preparing for a second hit. The shield wouldn't be strong enough a second time! He swung down again, but before it even came close to the shield Zoro was there. My brother intercepted the axe right as Luffy threw a punch at Helmoppo.

"Thanks," Luffy sent a grin in my brother's direction, along with mine, and I grinned right back. "No problem, cap!" and he laughed in delight. "Shishishi!" "Just doing my job, Captain," Zoro smiled around his sword, and then looked to me. "You alright?" His eyes scanned my form for a second, stopping at my leg ever so often. "I'm fine," I nodded, and he searched my eyes a quick moment before nodding in acceptance.

The marine soldiers were in shock. "Captain Morgan's been beaten." "Unbelievable! These guys are unreal!"

"If there's anyone who wants to step forward to fight," Zoro started, "Do so now." The marines exchanged glances before throwing their weapons into the air with loud cheers. Luffy was confused and spoke out as such. "That's weird. They're happy that their captain was defeated."

"They must've been afraid of him for a long time before we showed up," Coby explained, and I nodded in agreement. "They didn't respect him at all; they just followed him out of fear," I threw in, and Luffy looked at me very seriously for a moment.

Suddenly, Zoro collapsed on to the ground with a groan. "Zoro!" Coby shouted, but I just rolled my eyes. His energy felt a little weak, but nothing too serious. "Are you okay? What's wrong?" "What's wrong is this idiot hasn't eaten a proper meal in almost a month and just fought as though he was up to full strength," I scolded. "Shut up, Aela," he said half heartedly and I grinned.

"Don't worry, Coby," I said, kneeling down next to Zoro. "He's just hungry." I ran my hand soothingly through my brother's green hair, and he closed his eyes with a sigh, relaxing on to the ground.

Luffy laughed, watching our antics. "I'm hungry too! Let's go get some meat!"


	4. See Ya Later, Coby!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: this is where the story changes if you were here before pre-edit. Read carefully and enjoy! We find out a little more about Aela's powers.

We began making our way back to the bar to get some grub. We roused Zoro enough to where he was able to stand up on his own, although he was still learning pretty heavily on me. I was happy to support him until the bullet in my leg protested the extra weight. I held the both of us up for as long as I could, but my leg collapsed. I pulled myself up and reached for my brother who had passed out again, but before I could grab him Luffy had thrown him over his back.

"You should rest, Aela," he said, giving me an easy smile. "It's okay really," I said, attempting to reach for Zoro. "I can handle it." I reached out to take him from his back but Luffy evaded my hand. I looked up ready to argue, but his words made me stop. "You can trust me, Aela," he said, a sweet smile on his face. "We're nakama after all." I stopped in my tracks, staring at Luffy in shock.

I had already agreed to be a part of his crew, Zoro had as well, but I didn't realize exactly what that meant until Luffy actually said it.

Nakama. Family.

Zoro and I had been on our own for so long, just looking out for one another, that the idea of having someone else with us in our little family was completely foreign….but welcome. A large smile grew on my face at this realization, and I nodded at Luffy. He gave me a huge smile in return, and together, the four of us walked back to the bar.

…..

As soon as Zoro got a whiff of the food he woke up, and promptly asked for a doctor for my leg. I was aggravated because I was starving myself, but I knew it was coming. He knew by now that I'd never say anything myself so he had to. Twenty minutes later and plenty of cursing, the bullet was out and my leg was wrapped up tight.

"Whew! I am stuffed!" Zoro announced, sitting back in the chair and rubbing his stomach in content. "I was ready to gnaw through my bootstraps after three weeks with no food!"

"Idiot," I said, still chewing on my meat.

"Shut up," Zoro grumbled and I childishly stuck my tongue out at him.

"I can't believe you're finished already. You're a lightweight!" Luffy scoffed. "How the hell can you have a bigger appetite than someone that hasn't eaten in almost a month?" Zoro asked, eyebrows raised in disbelief.

"Rubber man," I supplied, and Zoro nodded in thought.

"Speaking of that," Coby began, "You also have devil fruit abilities, right Aela?" "Yep," I nodded. "The Ena Ena fruit." "Energy fruit?" Copy reiterated and I grinned at him. "That's me! I'm able to manipulate my energy and turn it into a physical manifestation to control how I wish."

"That's amazing," Coby breathed. "Is it just used for defensive purposes? Where do you draw the energy from? Is that why your eyes glowed earlier? Are you able to…"

"Hey hey!" I laughed, waving my hands in front of me. "I can't answer all of that at once." "Sorry," the pink haired boy blushed and I giggled, reaching out to ruffle his hair. "It's fine! Your interest is adorable," I cooed and he blushed even harder. "To start, yes, I do use it as a defensive tactic, which is what you saw earlier with the shield. I'm able to manipulate my energy into several shield forms. Unfortunately, because the shield is made of my energy, it's therefore an extension of me, so it's only as powerful as I am. Along with that, I also take on the same damage as the shield."

"So you're drawing out your own energy," Coby concluded, and then pondered, "That must be super draining." "It is," I confirmed, "I can't even count how many times I passed out when I first began practicing. Zoro-nii had to carry me home hundreds of times," I continued, and Zoro rolled his eyes at the memory. "Thankfully, I've become much more balanced. Whatever energy I use to create my shields comes back to me after the shield is dropped. But as I've said before, I also take on the damage that the shield does."

"So you're weakened while holding the shield up," Coby frowned. "Yes," I confirmed, forehead pulled tight. "I'm able to manipulate the shield around others, as well as pulling it inside of myself to create a self force field of sorts."

"Woah!" Luffy said, stars in his eyes. "That's so cool!" "That is fascinating," Coby commented. "What about offensive moves?"

"I have one or two tricks," I shrugged, grabbing my drink and swirling it around. "It's more draining to use offensive moves, and I need to strengthen my stamina."

"What do you mean?" Luffy said, but his voice was muffled as he had just shoved a giant chicken leg in his mouth.

"Well, my shield is an extension of me," I repeated patiently. "It's connected to my strength as well which is why I can't hold my shield for very long, and it's also why I have so much trouble with offensive moves. I'm still pretty weak," I said, voice fading out. Just then, I felt something thump into the back of my head.

I cursed, rubbing my head, glaring at Zoro who was still relaxed in his chair. "Hey!"

"Shut up," he said simply. "You're plenty strong, and as long as you work hard, you'll just get stronger." The ache in my head faded away and I looked at my brother softly for a second, before smacking the back of his head right back.

"Oi!" he said, sitting up in his chair and sending me a glare. I smiled at him sweetly while taking a long drink of my water.

"What about your eyes?" Coby cut into our argument and I gave him my attention again. "They were glowing earlier!" "Yeah that happens too," I started. "I'm not sure why, but when I ate the fruit it changed my physical appearance. My hair got lighter and these white steaks appeared," I continued, grabbing the white strand and holding it in front of me. "Believe it or not, my eyes used to be a dark brown, like brothers," I finished, nodding over at the man.

Just then, I felt two familiar energies coming toward us. "Rika!" I called out, turning around to catch the small girl right as she threw herself at me, her mother laughing softly at our antics. "How'd you know it was me Aela-chan?" she asked, voice full of wonder.

"Magic," I winked, and she giggled. "Thank you so much for the food, ma'am," Coby started, "It's delicious." I nodded strongly in agreement, allowing the girl to get down.

Rika's mother smiled at us saying, "It's my pleasure. You guys saved the town, so it's the least I could do really." Rika popped up near Luffy then. "You're the coolest person I've ever met!"

"Yeah I am," Luffy agreed, and I laughed. "He's very modest as well," I added. "I'll be more amazing when I'm King of the Pirates and have the One Piece." Luffy continued, ignoring me. "Oh and I'll have the best crew in the seas."

"So," Zoro grinned then. "Who else have you gathered for your crew besides me and my sister?" Luffy continued destroying food, shooting Zoro a look. "Hm?"

"You told me you were in the middle of gathering a crew for your ship," Zoro explained. "If you're gonna be King of the Pirates, you must already have several crew members lined up."

"Nope. Just the two of you," Luffy smiled, and my mouth dropped in surprise. "What?!" Zoro said, and I started laughing.

I should've known. "We're what amounts to an entire crew?"

"What's wrong with that? The both of you are really strong," at that statement I scoffed, "The three of us together should have plenty of power."

"What about a ship?" I questioned, and Luffy pointed out the window to a tiny ship. I turned and looked on in disbelief, and watched as a dog came out from nowhere and began pissing on our supposed "ship." I began cracking up, holding my stomach at the force of my laughs.

"You're kidding," Zoro deadpanned. "Nope," Luffy grinned, "We'll have an enormous one before long, just wait and see."

Zoro started laughing then. "And how is that going to happen?" Luffy continued, "We'll have a great pirate flag on top." He shoved a piece of bread into his mouth. "I can't wait."

Zoro groaned, head in his hands. "I think Luffy was born without the part of the brain that was made for planning," Coby joked, and I giggled. "Can't believe I let myself get suckered into having him as my captain."

"C'mon Zo-zo it's not that bad," I started, ignoring his, "Don't call me that!" protest. "Luffy said we were going to get more crew members and a bigger ship, and I believe him. We're nakama now, right?" I said, looking at Luffy. He sent me a huge smile in return and nodded, remembering our little talk from before.

"Luffy?" Rika spoke then. "Where are you and your crew going to travel when you leave here?" "Isn't it obvious?" Luffy laughed. "We're heading straight for the Grand Line."

PFFFFFFFTTT!

Coby sputtered, juice going everywhere. With tears in his eyes, and juice leaking from his nose he said, " No way! You're crazy! You only have 3 crew members. There's no way in hell you're equipped enough to head to the Grand Line, Luffy!"

"We need at least five," I nodded, and Coby snapped, "That's not what I meant! The Grand Line is a vicious place, some have even called it a pirate graveyard! No one makes it out of the Grand Line alive!"

"No one, huh?" I repeated wryly. "Then where do you suppose all of the stories come from?"

Rika's mom spoke up then, looking very concerned. "I have heard stories about it from other people passing through this area. The weather goes to extreme highs and lows constantly. It's a place that's completely unpredictable."

"The Grand Line is dangerous, Luffy," Coby finished. Luffy nodded and looked to be pondering their words. "That's really too bad," he said, "cause that's where the One Piece is said to be, and that's exactly where we're going."

"I guess we just have to live with it," Zoro said, looking completely unbothered. "Why are you so bothered, Coby?" I questioned, looking at the pink haired boy who appeared very distraught. "Are you going with us?"

"Of course not," he said vehemently shaking his head, "but I still worry. Should I not? I haven't known you guys for very long but I still consider you to be my friends. Wouldn't you say?" he finished, looking down. I smiled gently and got up, giving the boy the tightest hug I could manage. "Absolutely, Coby," I said pulling away, giggling at the light blush he now had.

"Of course!" Luffy agreed as well. "We may be parting ways, but we'll always be friends." "Hey. You there." We all turned around and watched as a group of marines came through the door. "We heard that you fellas are actually pirates..is this rumor correct?" one of the men questioned.

"That's right," Luffy answered. "I just added two new members to my crew as well. So the whole thing is pretty much official at this point."

"We appreciate everything all of you did to save our town from the horrible tyrant. He terrorized us for the longest time," the marine began, "However, now that you're classified yourself as pirates, as Marines I'm afraid we can't sit idly by and watch you go about your business. Therefore, you and your new crew are being ordered to leave this town immediately." At his words, the people in the bar began protesting. The Marine continued, voice louder to speak above everyone, "But, out of respect for what you've done, we will not report you to headquarters."

The townspeople continued to berate the Marines, dissatisfied with their ungrateful actions. My brother and I glanced at Luffy, curious to see how he would handle this situation.

He laughed of course. "Heh. Well, time to go guys. Thanks for all of the food, lady." Zoro and I stood up, and while Luffy and Zoro made their way to the door, I walked over to Rika and her mother.

"Thank you both so much for everything," I said, bowing deeply. I felt a hand on my shoulder then and looked up to see Rika's mother, smiling at me with tears in her eyes. "Thank you," she said, pulling me into a hug. "Your brother saved my daughter and then you all saved the town. All thanks go to you."

Before I could respond, my shirt was yanked on and I looked down to see Rika sending me a giant smile. "I'll miss you!" I giggled and leaned down to give her a hug. "I'll miss you too squirt." I ruffled her hair and then stood up to full height, making my way to the door to stand with my brother and Luffy.

The three of us were almost out the door when we heard the Marine addressing Coby. "Hold it. Is he with you or what?"

I held my breath, body tense. This situation would determine whether or not Coby would be able to become a marine. "I can tell you that he's been pretty busy up until this point," Luffy started. "Yeah...there was this huge, fat pirate lady named Alvida. She carried around this huge iron club and geeze, she was the nastiest looking woman I've ever seen." Luffy walked over to Coby and began poking him in the head. "For two years this wimpy kid was her own private Cabin boy."

Coby became obviously distressed at this point, and lashed out at straw hat, punching him in the cheek. The marines and bar were shocked. Luffy struck back, delivering a few punches in retaliation. I was in shock myself until I realized what Luffy was doing.

Zoro stepped in after a bit. "Enough," he spoke, stopping the captain, "You've made your point. Let him fall to the ground."

"It's obvious you're not crewmates, so stop bothering the poor kid and take your leave of our town right this instant," the Marine ordered.

"Let's go, guys," I said, and the boys nodded. We all left the bar to head to the docks, moving in silence. Zoro shot Luffy a smile. "That was some act you put on in there. I wouldn't be surprised if they saw right through it though." Luffy laughed. "Coby should be able to handle the rest on his own. I have complete faith in him."

"It is a fitting way to leave this place," Zoro nodded. "Unable to turn back because everyone here hates us now."

I agreed with him, nodding in contemplation. "Yes, very pirate-y of us, indeed."

"Pirate-y isn't a word, Aela," Zoro said, and I stuck my tongue out at him. "Well it should be!" I countered.

"Luffy!" We all looked up at the voice, and was surprised to see Coby standing with Rika and her mother nearby. I felt amusement run through me when the pink haired boy threw us all a salute. "I can never thank you all enough! You've done more for me than anyone ever has."

"A Marine thanking a pirate? That's new," I said, smiling. "That's one for the history book," Zoro agreed. Luffy grinned and hopped on the boat. He dropped the sail once we were all on and we waved goodbye to Coby.

"We'll meet again, Coby! Some day!" he called. "Good luck!" I said, waving at the boy.

"We're finally ready to set sail," Luffy announced as the town faded into the distance.

I had a feeling that sailing with Luffy was going to be anything but boring, but I was ready for whatever life chose to spit at us.


	5. Damn it, Luffy!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: So this is my favorite chapter so far. This is when we start to see a certain romance forming, and we also meet the orange haired thief. Hehehehehehe
> 
> please enjoy!

I was leaning over the edge of our tiny boat, running my hand over the surface of the water, watching it ripple. Even just dipping my fingers in the water had a small effect on my energy, but I didn't care. I swam every day before I ate my devil fruit, and I missed it. Zoro was stretched out beside me, seemingly unaware of the world around him. His hand lightly gripped my shirt, pulling my body back until I was safe within the boat again. We'd learned that lesson the hard way in the past.

¨I´m hungry,¨ Luffy whined, and I looked over my shoulder at him to see him also leaning over the railing of the boat, looking completely pitiful. ¨You ate the last of our food an hour ago,¨ Zoro grumbled, and Luffy groaned. ¨How long before we reach land?¨ I questioned, feeling pity for the boy.

¨Who knows?¨ Luffy replied, looking out to the sea with a blank look on his face. ¨That's up to the wind and the sea,¨ he finished, and I laughed lightly at his carefree voice. ¨We'll get to an island eventually.¨

¨You sound as though you don't know the first thing about navigation,¨ Zoro mused, and Luffy shrugged. ¨I just drift. I wait to see where the boat takes me.¨ He looked over and raised an eyebrow at us. ¨What about you two? Do you know how to navigate?¨

I snorted. ¨Zoro-nii here just happens to be a navigational genius.¨ Zoro threw me a glare. ¨Really?¨ Luffy said, shooting up from his slouched position, eyes shining with excitement. I laughed, shaking my head.

¨No way. He sucks.¨ I said bluntly, grunting when he smacked the back of my head. ¨Shut up! Like you're any better.¨ I shrugged. He was right. We both sucked.

¨Aren't you a great bounty hunter or something though?¨ Luffy asked Zoro, sounding suspicious. I laughed. ¨If by great you mean lazy, then yes,¨ I said, and Luffy looked confused. ¨I don't recall ever saying I was a bounty hunter,¨ Zoro clarified. ¨I went out to sea to look for a certain man...¨

¨...and then he got lost...¨ I finished, nodding. ¨Oi!" Zoro said indignantly. ¨I didn't get lost. I was searching.¨

¨Wait, really?¨ Luffy asked me, laughing, ignoring the last bit of Zoro's remark. I giggled. ¨Yep. The whole bounty hunter thing isn't necessarily true. The only reason we started catching pirates is cuz we were starving and needed money. Rumors began to spread though, and people began calling Zoro-nii a bounty hunter. We never bothered denying it, and the name just stuck,¨ I shrugged.

¨So you two got lost and didn't know how to get back home,¨ Luffy nodded, sounding as though he had everything figured out. ¨I didn't get lost!¨ Zoro shouted at him, his body shooting up toward the young captain. His body bumped mine when he set up, and the force of it all made our tiny mode of transportation rock wildly, making my body lean back a little too far over the boat.

I gasped and waved my arms around frantically, trying to regain my balance.

Zoro was shaking his fist in the captain's face when he heard his sister gasp. He looked over quickly to see that her body was half in, half out of the boat. He cursed and lunged over, launching himself at her.

Her body had just fallen into the water when he got to her, and he reached down, quick as lightning, grabbing onto her arm as she began to sink. He easily pulled her back up into the boat, sitting her soaked form in his lap.

I breathed in and out, trying to catch my breath. Zoro-nii rubbed my back, looking at me apologetically. I smiled at him half-heartedly.

Luffy looked at the brother and sister duo curiously. He opened his mouth to ask if Aela was okay, when suddenly, a sharp breeze flew by, blowing the captain´s straw hat off of his head. Luffy watched on in horror, looking as though he was going to jump out of the boat for his treasure.

The hat blew towards Zoro and I. I reached my hand up to try and grab it but it was just out of my reach. Zoro gently moved me off of his lap, standing up halfway in the boat to reach for the hat. He managed to grab the very edge of it before it sailed completely out of reach.

Zoro wordlessly handed the captain's treasure back to him, and Luffy held onto the hat, gazing at it seriously. The hat obviously meant a lot to him. I made a personal vow to keep an eye on the hat and help him protect his treasure. My brother and I were now a part of Luffy's crew, meaning that if the hat was important to Luffy, it was important to me.

Everything was silent at this point, and the boat traveled peacefully through the water, the now soft breeze catching our sail and moving us steadily along. My energy level was low from the activity earlier, and I was hungry which never helped.

I yawned and snuggled into oniichan. He glanced over at me and shifted, and I sighed in satisfaction when I found my comfy spot. I felt Zoro-nii´s hands playing with my hair, gently sifting through the locs, and the world around me slowly faded away.

….

¨Sit down, idiot!¨ I woke up to the sound of Zoro berating Luffy. I blinked blearily, rubbing my eyes and smacking my lips. I sat up and shoved my hands through my hair, looking around at my surroundings. ¨Ẅhaz goin´ on?¨ I said sleepily. I was always out of it after a nap. Finally getting my senses back, I looked up to see Luffy sitting across from me, drool pouring heavily out of his mouth. He was looking upwards to the sky, and I followed his gaze to see a bird high up in the sky.

¨Food,¨ Luffy said, sounding like a zombie. ¨Uh, Luffy,¨ I started, looking at him worriedly. He was planning something. ¨That bird is a little too far away...¨ I could feel its energy but it was faint.

¨You're gonna tip the boat over, dumb ass!¨ Zoro shouted, grabbing a hold of the edge of the boat when Luffy surged up. ¨Uhhh...¨ I started, looking up at the rubber boy. What was he about to….

¨Gomu gomu...¨ he started, winding his arm back. ¨Luffy don't…" I said, standing up as well. Like an idiot, I grabbed on to my captain´s arm, trying in vain to get him to sit back down. ¨Aela let go,¨ Zoro said, panic in his voice. He quickly shot up from his seat. He had obviously figured out what I had. He reached out to grab my arm to get me let go of the Captain, but it was too late.

¨Rocket!¨ Luffy finished, and suddenly, I was in the air. I screamed in shock, looking down at the boat that was slowly fading into the distance. I could faintly hear Zoro screaming for me, but the wind blowing around my body and the shock of the situation dulled my senses. In desperation I latched as hard as I could on to Luffy. It felt like we had been in the air for several years, when finally, we made it to the bird. Luffy grasped my waist and swung the both of us around, and I was shocked to discover that the bird was a lot bigger than what I had first suspected, because we were currently riding the damn thing!

¨Oh God Oh God Oh God...¨ I chanted to myself over and over, on the verge of hyperventilation. I was ridiculously afraid of heights, and this..this was my worst nightmare come to life. ¨Aela, you ok?¨ Luffy asked, when he noticed I had loosened my grip around him. In fact, it had tightened.

¨...scared of heights….¨ I whispered, trying desperately not to look down. Luffy pulled me closer to him when I said that, and I was grateful for the comfort. We sailed on top of the bird for a few seconds, and I was about to begin calming my heart down, when suddenly, an awful thought hit me.

¨Luffy...how are we going to get down?¨ I gulped, and he looked at me with wide eyes. Luffy leaned over the side of the bird making me yelp. ¨Zoro help!¨ he cried, and I could very faintly hear Zoro calling Luffy a dumbass, but it might've just been my imagination.

I had my eyes closed as tightly as possible and was trying to block out the situation. ¨Look Aela, a town!¨ Luffy spoke, and I squinted my eyelids open an inch or two, discovering that he was correct. We were quickly approaching a town. The bird flew very quickly, and if we weren't careful, we were going to soar over it and be stuck in the air forever, which is something I would never allow.

Apparently my captain agreed with me, because just then, he yelled out, ¨That's enough from you bird!¨ and began kicking the poor thing in the side. I screamed when the bird squawked out an indignant cry and began careening side to side, trying to shake us off.

Luffy threw his foot down again, and suddenly, we were in the air for a second time. This time though, we were falling towards the ground. Fear like I'd never known shot through me, and my voice got caught in my throat so I wasn't even able to scream out.

We were flying towards the ground at an insanely fast speed, and although I was sure that Luffy would be okay due to his rubber body, I sure as hell wouldn't be. We were about thirty seconds from hitting the ground, and I grit my teeth, holding my hand out, and began trying to form a shield around mine and my captain´s body. I cursed when the shield appeared but quickly flickered away.

Seconds before impact, I pushed my hand out again, and the shield's outer edges were formed. Yet again, the shield flickered away before it could form completely, and I felt panicked tears come to my eyes.

Heart beating wildly in my chest, I thrust my hand out one final time, shouting out the words, "Shield Bubble!" and low and behold, a translucent bubble formulated itself around Luffy and I, shielding us from the ground right as we slammed into the dirt. The breath was stolen from my body at the impact, and we rolled several times along the ground before coming to rest at the foot of a giant tree.

I was breathing roughly in and out, my eyes were still slammed shut, and a few tears had leaked out and were sliding down my face. I felt the shield fade away, and was surprised that instead of feeling the hard ground underneath me, I was lying on top of something soft. I cracked open my eyes and was shocked to see Luffy had rolled himself underneath me. While I was trying to get the shield to work, Luffy had wrapped himself around me, shifting me underneath him so he would slam into the ground instead of me.

I blinked at him owlishly and he looked at me concernedly. ¨Are you okay?¨ he started, and I was surprised when he reached up and wiped a tear off of my cheek. He slowly released me and I quickly climbed off of him, smiling at him sheepishly. ¨I´m fine,¨ I confirmed, reaching my hand towards him to help him up. ¨Sorry about that,¨ I continued. ¨I didn't mean to freak out on you.¨ He studied me for a few seconds longer before laughing and grabbing my hand. I pulled the both of us up and we smiled at each other in relief.

For a second there I was afraid that he was going to make a comment about my obvious weakness, but after thinking that I felt a bit silly. I hadn't known Luffy long, but I didn't think he would ever do something like that.

¨She's getting away!¨ we heard two voices shout, and looked over to see an orange haired chick running away from two thug looking guys. ¨Sorry, they're all yours now,¨ the orange haired girl called out as she passed us, waving smugly.

Wait,what?

The two guys stopped when they saw us, and both groups studied each other for a bit. ¨Sup,¨ I waved, and they grinned. ¨We couldn't grab that girl, but this one'll do,¨ one of them spoke, leering at me. He took a step towards me and I gagged, disgusted.

Luffy took a small step in front of me, and I looked at him curiously.¨Do you know where we can eat around here?¨ Luffy asked suddenly, and I sweat dropped. ¨Cap, I don't think they're who we should be asking about that….¨

¨Yeah kid, just follow us,¨ the second thug said creepily and stepped toward us.

Before I could move away, the first thug grabbed hold of my arm. The other man, bless his soul, threw a punch out at Luffy, catching him in the face. Luffy's head was jolted back, and his hat was thrown into the air. If I had blinked, I would've missed the next part. Luffy reached out and grabbed his hat, quick as a whip, and in the same motion, swung his arm back and punched the man away, sending him flying into the air away from us. The pirate captain put his hat safely back on his head.

The thug was still hanging tightly onto my arm, but it was more out of shock than anything. His mouth was hanging open, frozen, as he gazed at my Captain fearfully. I shivered a bit when I looked at Luffy. His straw hat was hanging down over his eyes, and his jaw was tense. His carefree persona that surrounded him had somehow disappeared, and a dark aura took its place.

¨Let go of her arm,¨ he said simply, and the man nodded, robotically releasing my arm and stepping away from me. Luffy waited till he had taken a few steps away from me before punching the man and sending him flying in the same direction his friend had gone.

The men got up from where they'd been thrown and ran away, not looking back. Luffy turned to me and smiled widely. ¨Shishishi, let's go find some food!¨

I sweat dropped at the quick change of emotion, but quickly shrugged it off. He was obviously very protective of his crew members. I certainly couldn't talk; Zoro and I were the same way, more so at times depending on the severity of the situation. I smiled at him widely and we began walking towards the smell of food that was wafting through the air. My stomach grumbled loudly.

I want some noodles. My mouth watered at the thought. Yet again though, right before we made it fully into the town, we heard a voice yell down at us from a rooftop. I growled out loud in frustration. I was really freaking hungry, and all of these interruptions were making me irritated rather quickly.

¨You're really strong!¨ the voice cried out, and I sighed again when I saw it was the orange haired girl from earlier. She wasn't exactly on my good side right now; I didn't appreciate being used. The girl jumped down from the roof and landed in front of me.

¨Hey Aela, do you know this girl?¨ Luffy asked, and I shook my head. ¨Nope. Never seen her.¨

¨My name´s Nami. I'm a thief and I steal from pirates. Wanna join up with me?¨ she asked, and I looked on in exasperation when she finished her sentence with a wink. She propped her hand on her hip and tilted her chest up, showcasing her impressive cleavage.

I was unimpressed, and I had a feeling Luffy was as well. On top of that, why the hell would we team up with someone that stole from pirates? We were pirates. There's no way we would ever be able to trust her.

¨No thanks,¨ Luffy answered simply, obviously agreeing with me, and we walked around the girl. I waved sweetly and winked back at her, smirking when an angry tick appeared on her forehead. ¨Hey wait a second!¨ she called us.

¨I said wait!¨ she repeated, running towards us when we made no obvious motions to stop.

¨I´ll treat you to food,¨ she yelled, and I had to swallow at the drool that immediately began forming. Luffy and I stopped at the same time, and the girl smiled triumphantly.

Damn my food weakness, and damn her using it against me.

We followed the girl into town and she led us to a small, cute looking house. ¨Is this your home?¨ I questioned her after I finished off my humongous sandwich. She shook her head. ¨I don't live in this town. Everyone has left because of Buggy.¨

¨Who´s Buggy?¨ Luffy questioned, spitting food out as he did so. I grimaced and and leaned a bit away from him. ¨So whose house is this?¨ I asked, and before she could answer, Luffy spoke. ¨I thought you said you only stole from pirates.¨

¨I do!¨ she answered, almost sounding offended. ¨Don't compare me to scumbag petty thieves!¨

¨But you are,¨ I answered innocently, confused. ¨Shut up!¨ she yelled, smacking me in the head. I winced, and rubbed my poor head, pouting. She almost hit harder than Zoro-nii. ¨Anyway,¨ she started, sending me another quick glare, ¨my goal is to earn 100 million bellis to buy an island. I'll do it no matter what,¨ she ended.

¨Why do you need that much money?¨ I asked, curious. ¨It's a secret,¨ she winked, and my eyebrow raised. Whatever.

¨But with a map to the Grand Line, it should be easy to collect that amount!¨ she said, and her eyes lit up. Luffy turned to Nami, confused. ¨A map? Are you a navigator?¨ ¨I'm much more skilled than your average navigator,¨ she confirmed, and I sighed. I knew what was coming.

¨Really?¨ Luffy said, and I smiled. Called it. ¨Join my crew!¨ ¨Crew?¨ she said, looking disgusted all of a sudden. ¨No way in hell! So you two are pirates?¨ I nodded. ¨Hence why we decided not to join you in your thievy ways.¨

¨There´s nothing in this world I hate more than pirates,¨ Nami said vehemently. ¨I only like money and tangerines.¨ I snorted; the girl was definitely honest if nothing else. ¨Awww,¨ Luffy whined. ¨Be my navigator!¨

¨I said no!¨ I rolled my eyes. This would go on for a while. ¨I´ll join your crew on one condition,¨ she said, and I frowned. That didn't sound good. We couldn´t trust this girl. I opened my mouth to turn her down, but my captain spoke before I could. ¨Name it!¨ Damn it Luffy.

¨Come with me to Buggy headquarters.¨ I covered Luffy's mouth up quickly, knowing that he was about to agree.

¨Why the hell would we do that?¨

Luffy licked my hand and I yanked it away from his mouth, shocked. ¨What the hell Luffy!¨

¨We´ll do it!¨ he shouted, and I groaned, smacking my hand on my forehead.

Damn it, Luffy.


	6. Fuckin' Clowns

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Here's the next chapter! There's some emotion in this between Luffy and our girl, and we also find out what kind of person Nami really is.
> 
> Enjoy!

Ten minutes later, we were tied up, and I was pissed.

¨What. The. Hell,¨ I ground out, wanting to smack the shit out of the girl, and my captain for getting me into this stupid ass situation.

"What the hell?!" I screamed out, grunting as we were thrown into a cage. The cage was just big enough to hold Luffy and I, and my fear of tight spaces was slamming into me. Fear makes me angry.

"I'll kill her," I seethed, glaring darkly at the girl. She flinched when she saw the look I was giving her, and a part of me was pleased.

"Shishishi," Luffy laughed, and I turned my glare onto my captain. "Why are you laughing?" I asked, trying to fight off the urge to bite his nose. "Calm down, Aela," he soothed, and I was surprised that he was able to tell that my anger was more panic than anything. "Everything is gonna be fine. Nami's got a plan."

"We don't know that, Luffy!" I argued, flinching as music started playing and pirates dressed like clowns started to dance in front of us. "We don't know this girl, and she could literally choose to betray us whenever she wants to."

"She won't," he answered simply, and I sighed. "Whatever." I set back and watched the clown pirates, who I was assuming at this point were a point of Buggy's crew, drink and party.

Zoro was gonna be so pissed at me.

I looked over at Luffy when I felt a tug against our ropes, and gaped as I watched him stretch his arms through the cage bars, struggling to grab a piece of meat on one of the tables that were filled with food. "Luffy!" I hissed, and he glanced at me while still reaching. "What?" he questioned, now sticking his tongue out with the force of his concentration.

I looked from him to the hand that was now feeling around the table for meat, and sighed again. I seemed to do that a lot around my captain. "Get me a chicken leg," I said, deciding to just go along with it.

If ya can't beat em…

His fingertips had just made contact with the bone of a chicken leg, when I guess his elasticity ran out, and his arm slammed back into the cage. The force of it caused him to ram into me, and I fell back and smacked my head on one of the bars. I groaned and shook my head, pain running through me. "Damn it Luffy," I moaned, and he looked at me pitifully. "Sorry, Aela" he pouted. "I was trying to get a piece of meat so we could join the party."

"We don't need to join this kinda party Cap," I said, studying the big red nosed dude that had just shown up to the party. "I'm guessing big nose over there is Buggy," I commented, and Luffy nodded, grinning. "Probably," he answered.

We watched as Nami talked and laughed with the Buggy captain and his crew, and a shiver went through me when I noticed the painted smile the captain had on his face. "Fuckin' clowns," I muttered. "Hmm?" Luffy questioned, giving me a side glance.

"I hate clowns," I said louder. "These don't seem that bad," he said, and I shook my head. "It's not that. I just don't like what they represent. I don't understand the painted on smiles. The idea of someone being happy all of the time is creepy. Not only that, but fake emotion freaks me out," I shuddered, and Luffy studied me seriously for a moment.

"So it's the noses right?" he said randomly, and I sweat dropped. The sound of a match being lit caught my attention and I turned towards the clowns. One of the crew was busy lighting a cannon, and I gasped when I saw where it was pointed. "Luffy that's gonna hit the town," I said, anger rushing through me. A big BOOM filled the air when the cannon was fired, and I watched as the ball was launched into the air. My face was frozen in shock as I watched the ball fly through houses and businesses.

I felt as various points of energy throughout the town dropped and then faded all together, and a knot formed in my throat as tears formed in my eyes. "Aela?" Luffy asked, eyes wide at my tears. "He killed them," I bit out, dropping my head as the tears dropped on to the ground. "How do you.." the captain began. "I can feel people's energy. It's not distinct like it is for you or Zoro, but I'm aware of it. He just killed around 100 hundred people," I finished, voice dark and sad.

"What?" Luffy gasped out, watching as the girl in front of him fell to the ground, the tears continuing to dampen the dirt. A dark look came over the boy's face then, and his hands that were tied behind his back tightened into fists.

The young captain was filled with anger, not only for the people of the town, but also for his crew mate that was visibly affected by the meaningless loss of life that had just happened. He got even angrier when he heard Big nose let out a loud laugh at the destruction. The clown turned towards the orange haired girl. "With this power I will rule the Grand Line."

"I'm the one who's gonna rule the Grand Line!" Luffy shouted out suddenly, and Big Nose turned to us then. "What did you say boy?"

"I'm going to rule the Grand Line!" he repeated, and I smiled at him, wishing that I could wipe the tears off of my face. "I'm going to be the king of the pirates!" Big Nose burst into laughter along with all of his crew mates. I scowled watching them mock my captain's dream.

"I can see why you're sick of him, Nami," he commented, and the girl, Nami, spoke then, her voice sickly sweet, making me want to gag. "Exactly. He takes the world so lightly..he misunderstands everything. I couldn't take it anymore."

They laughed together, and the sound made me actually gag. "You okay?" Luffy said, watching me. "Fake emotions," I said simply, and he nodded in understanding.

"As a parting gift to give to your boss, I'll give you one of my buggy balls to blow these two idiots away and prove your loyalty to the buggy crew," Buggy told Nami, who paled a little. The crew began shouting and cheering, egging Nami on. The cannon was picked up and turned towards mine and Luffy's cage, and I cursed. I began moving my wrist back and forth against the ropes. If I could just get my hands free…

When the canon was finally in position, the Buggy crew stood in anticipation of what the orange haired girl would do next. Nami merely stood next to the cannon, not moving, seemingly frozen. I could sense her hesitation and breathed a sigh of relief. She wasn't going to do it. I didn't trust the girl yet, but I knew now that she wasn't a killer.

A cheap thief….but not a killer. I moved my wrist faster and faster, wincing at the pain. The rough ropes were digging into my wrists, scraping them. I bit my tongue, ignoring the annoying burning sensation and kept going. If I could get my wrists to bleed well enough I would be able to escape the ropes and throw a shield around our cage.

I had never had the force of a cannonball thrown against my shield, but I had to at least try. "Alright! Light it flashily!" Buggy commanded, and a man came up with a match, trying to hand it off to Nami. She hesitantly reached out to take it, and I tried not to shout out in triumph when I felt blood begin to trail down my arm. Just a little bit more…

"Don't wimp out on me now, Nami," Luffy called to the girl, and she looked at him with hooded eyes. The two seemed to study one another for a bit, and I saw Nami make the subtlest head nod to herself. She'd obviously just made a decision, and I hoped it would be in our favor.

"What's the matter?" Luffy continued calling to her. "Your hands are shaking," he taunted, and she balled her hands into fists as his remark. "This is what happens when you take on pirates with a half ass resolve."

"Resolve to do what?" she shot back, walking towards us. "To kill? To kill others like it's nothing," she bit out scathingly. I realized then that Nami had obviously had experience with pirates. The bad kind. "Is that a pirate's resolve?" she finished, sneering down at us.

"Of course not," I spoke up then, and she looked at me as if just remembering that I was there. "The resolve is to put your own life on the line for what you believe in." Nami stopped in her tracks when I said that, looking at us with dark eyes. She lowered her head then, turning to walk back towards the cannon. The Buggy Pirates grinned, thinking that they had won the girl over.

She just stood next to the cannons though, and I guess one of the buggy crew lost their patience with her, because he snatched the box of matches from his crew mate and lit the fuse of the cannon himself. Nami squeaked in surprise, and I tensed up. Blood was coating both of my wrists at this point, and I began tugging on the knot, bending my wrists in every way possible to loosen the damn thing.

"C'mon, c'mon," I muttered, yanking harder as the fuse grew shorter. Luffy maneuvered himself in front of me and I inwardly huffed. Like that would do anything. We were both about to be blown into bits and pieces.

I had finally managed to free one of my damn hands from the knot, when suddenly, I heard several of Buggy's crew members cry out. I looked up to see that Nami had whacked the shit out of the man who had lit the cannon fuse. She was holding a long bo-staff in her hand. Where the hell did she get that? I thought to myself incredulously.

All hell broke loose then. Pirates began yelling, attacking the girl, and I yelled triumphantly when both of my hands were freed from the knot. "Yes!" I shouted, holding my hands up. Luffy looked over at me with a grin. "You did it!" he congratulated and I laughed. Of course he knew what I was doing.

Nami was in the middle of beating the shit out of Buggy's crew, but there were way more of them than she could fight off, and she was getting overwhelmed. "The fuse!" I yelled out when I noticed it was quickly dwindling away. Nami jerked her head over when she heard me, and before I knew it, had jumped towards the cannon, and thrust both of her hands over the fuse. My mouth dropped in shock and she cried out in pain at the fire burning her. "Woah," I whispered, and winced with her when she pulled her hands away, gingerly inspecting them. I can't believe she did that…She definitely just earned some brownie points from me.

My attention was diverted when I noticed one of the bastards sneaking up behind her with a club in his hand, and I threw my hands out as quick as I could. "Shield extend!" I cried, and a shield was formed around the girl right as the pirate yelled and sent the club down to hit the unsuspecting teenager in the back of the head.

He squawked in surprise upon seeing the shield, and Luffy burst into laughter. I smirked at the man when he started freaking out. "What the hell?!" he shouted, poking the shield with his weapon. Nami heard the man and turned towards him and gaped when she noticed what looked to be a bubble surrounding her. "What the hell is this?!" she shouted, jumping back a bit.

"That's mine!" I yelled to her, and she jerked her head towards me. I winked at her playfully. "I ate the Ena Ena fruit. You're welcome." She continued gaping at me, surprise running through her at not only my devil fruit power, but the fact that I had protected her with them. She was sure at that point that the younger girl hated her.

The pirate, finally getting over his shock of the situation, growled and began pummeling the shield with his club. Nami cried out and ducked away, thinking that the shield would fail, but it held strong. I was handling the abuse pretty well, but one particular hard hit made me wince. The shield was connected to me, and while I couldn't feel the actual blows, I could still feel the attack.

Luffy had been watching the activity up to this point, and when he noticed my wince he jumped into action. "Hey!" he shouted, and threw a punch out at the man attacking Nami. His arm stretched through the bars, and the punch slammed into the pirate, sending him flying into one of the nearby buildings. I sighed in relief when I was able to take my shield down. "Thanks for that, Cap," I said, wiping sweat off of my forehead. "No problem," he grinned.

"Now that isn't very nice," I heard a deep voice say, and my heart jumped. That sounded like… "Ganging up on one girl like that." Sure enough, my brother was standing over five of the men, swords out and the ever familiar dark smirk on his face.

"Zoro!" I called out, and his head whipped over in my direction. "Aela?" he questioned, dropping his fighting stance in surprise. "Hey!" I waved, giving him a huge smile in greeting. I watched as he took notice of the situation I was in, and his face got tighter as he grew angry. "What the hell are you doing in a cage?" he questioned me, and I shrugged. "That's what I was trying to figure out."

"It took you long enough to get here!" I berated him and he scoffed at me as he attacked the pirates. "You got lost didn't you.." I threw out, and he quickly looked over at me with shark teeth. "You shut up! You're the stupid one in a damn cage!" "It's not my fault!" I yelled out, my own shark teeth forming.

"Zoro you came!" Luffy shouted, laughing at us. "Did you get lost?" he asked innocently. "He totally did!" I said, pointing at my brother as I laughed loudly. "Shut up!" Zoro roared.

"Zoro? Did I hear the bitch say Zoro?" I heard a voice question. "Watch your mouth," Zoro commanded, and I realized that it was Big Nose who'd spoken. "Well," the blue haired captain continued, "If it isn't the famous pirate hunter Roronoa Zoro. Are you here for my head?" Zoro just glared at him. "I gave up pirate hunting," he said, and nodded towards Luffy and I. "I'm here for my friends."

"Friends huh?" Buggy repeated. "I'm pretty sure the tiny bitch in the cage is more than just a friend," he smarted off, and Zoro growled at him. "I told you to watch your mouth."

"Well…" Buggy snickered. "I'm interested in you. Killing you would be a nice feather in my cap. Zoro smirked at the clown darkly. "I'm about to pluck all your feathers then." "Yeah!" I shouted, surging upwards, smacking my head into the bars. "Damn this cage!" I shouted, and grabbed the bars. "Get me out of this thing!" I yelled angrily, shaking the bars.

"Die flashily!" I heard Buggy say, and the clown charged at my brother. Zoro moved as well, slashing Buggy clean in two, and cutting his arm in the process. Complete silence fell over the area. The pirates began laughing, and I leaned back, stunned. Why the hell were they laughing?

"Unreal," Tangerine girl muttered. "Their captain is lying dead on the ground, and they're laughing." My eyebrows creased, and I felt unsettled. "Something's wrong.." I said lowly. "Why are they laughing?" The unease in me built,and I felt a huge amount of concern for my brother. I hated being behind bars while he was out fighting! He was way too vulnerable, and out of instinct, I threw my hands out, encasing him in an energy bubble.

Zoro made no comment on the bubble that had appeared around him out of thin air. He merely glanced at me out of the corner of his eye and quickly looked forward again, body tense. He felt just as uneasy as I did.

The next moment proved that my concern was warranted, because just then, I felt a sharp pain in my side. I cried out in surprise and pain. "Aela!" Luffy shouted, hands on my shoulders in support. "What's wrong?" His dark eyes searched me up and down, looking for the source of my pain.

"It feels like I'm being stabbed," I grit out, and he gasped. Just then we heard a creepy ass laugh. "That sounded like…" Luffy breathed out, and we saw that a knife had pierced the side of my shield, and was inches away from being in my brother's side. I cried out again when the knife moved further into the shield trying to reach Zoro.

The swordsman quickly grabbed hold of the knife, and yelled out when he noticed there was a disembodied hand attached to the end of the knife. "What the hell!" he yelled, and I panted roughly, pain going through me.

I shared his sentiments. What kind of fucking weirdo were we dealing with here?


	7. Mayor Boodle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here's where Aela's insecurities make themselves known. She's not very strong right now. She's the youngest in the Straw Hat crew, and at 16, she's still got a lot of growing up to do. She's got a lot to learn about herself and her power, and while her power will grow, A LOT, right now, it's still pretty..flimsy.

“Was that Buggy?” Nami asked, voice high pitched. She sounded about as freaked out as I was. The feelings increased in the next second, when the clown pirate’s severed head, arm and torso began floating off of the ground and flew towards each other, surging back together. “What the hell is this guy?” Zoro breathed out. 

Buggy laughed darkly when he finally had all of his parts back. “The Chop Chop Fruit!” he exclaimed, and I felt like a dumbass. Of course. Devil fruit. “What the hell is that?!” Luffy questioned. He still hadn’t let go of my shoulders, and I was grateful. The pain was quickly receding, but damn if it didn’t still hurt like a bitch. “I’m a chop chop man!!!” Buggy clarified, throwing his arms out. “I can’t be defeated by simple swordplay!”

“Chop-chop man??” Luffy repeated. “This guy’s a freak!” I laughed despite myself. “Pot meet kettle,” I said to Luffy, and he tilted his head at me like a confused puppy. Suddenly, Buggy launched his fist at our cage, and a knife was flying towards us. I went to throw my hands out, but Luffy grabbed my arms and forced them back down before I could use my devil fruit.

I cried out in shock when the knife hit Luffy head on. Why the hell didn’t he let me block it???

I was relieved but highly confused when blood didn’t splatter into the air upon impact. Luffy’s head had tilted back due to the force of the throw, and he slowly moved it back down. My mouth dropped open when I discovered that the young captain had somehow caught the knife in his teeth! 

He grinned around the knife, and bit down, snapping the steel in half. “Buggy…” he began, and his voice sent shivers through me. “Once I get outta here, I swear I’m gonna kick your ass!!” His dark eyes stared Buggy down for several more seconds, and then he grinned over at my brother. “Hey Zoro!” the boy started. “Run!” 

Nami looked back and forth at us and Buggy. She looked like she was about to lose her fricken mind, and I snorted at the thought. 

Zoro ran towards our cage at our captain’s command, no hesitation on his part. Buggy tried intercepting him, but the green haired teenager simply cut him in half again. It might not kill him, but it took a little bit for him to get all of his parts together again, which gave us some time to get the hell away. 

Zoro made it to the cannon, ducking underneath it. He put both hands on the mouth of it and began pushing it with all of his strength. It took four of Buggy’s men to move it, but only one Zoro. 

“Nami, the matches!” I called out, and she jumped. She took her pole and whacked the man who was holding the matches. Picking them up with shaking hands, she lit the fuse. 

BOOM!!!!!

The Buggy Ball shot out from the cannon, blasting the other end of the tavern to bits. I heard Buggy’s scream of terror and then…..blessed silence.

………………………………………………………………….

“Holy shit,” I breathed out, finally able to relax when we made it out of the war zone in one piece. “No kidding…” Zoro agreed, and I looked down at him from the cage. 

I studied our surroundings. We were in front of a pet food shop. I didn’t see any of Buggy’s men around. “You can probably put us down now, Nii-chan,” I said, and he nodded. When we were on ground level again, I started a bit seeing a dog staring at us. The dog wasn’t moving, and he looked awful serious. He was watching us like a hawk...like a...hawk-dog….  
I snorted in amusement at my dumb-ass thought, and Zoro rolled his eyes at me, mumbling under his breath. 

“Doggy!” Luffy exclaimed, moving closer to the front of the cage. I laughed; he got excited so easily. He moved the cage closer to the dog, and when close enough, began poking it. 

“Luffy stop,” I scolded, slapping his hand down. “Leave him alone,” I finished, sounding like his mother. “But Aela,” he whined, poking it again, “He looks dead.” He poked it between the eyes, and apparently, that was the moment the dog had reached his limit with the rubber boy, because the next thing I knew, he’d bitten Luffy’s face. 

Luffy began screaming, “Let go of me, you stupid dog!!!! Get off, get off, GET OFF!!!!” “Luffy be still!” I told him, fretting. I tried to get the dog to release the boy but he merely held on harder. “Luffy stop fooling around!!!!” Zoro shouted, and I started laughing, the ridiculousness of the situation finally hitting me.

My laughter died though when I felt the energy of the orange haired girl get closer. I guess she decided to grace us with her presence again. Ugh. 

“Look at you people,” Nami started, walking up on the situation. Luffy and the dog had stopped mid fight, the dog gnawing on the right side of Luffy’s face, and Luffy’s fist up ready to beat the dog off of him. “You know, the middle of the street isn’t the greatest hiding place.” 

“Who says we’re hiding?” I shot back at her, and she frowned at me. She threw a key onto the ground then.

“You guys got me out of a sticky situation back there, so now we’re even.” “You stole this for us, Nami?” Luffy questioned, grinning at her like an idiot. “Thanks!” 

“Yeah, thanks,” I said drily. It’s the least she could do really since she was the one that got us in that situation to begin with. 

“So what’s the story here?” Zoro questioned, studying the orange haired girl. “Who’s she?” “That’s Nami,” Luffy introduced. “She’s our new navigator.” I snickered when she yelled back, “I’m not your navigator!” 

“She’s our navigator,” Luffy repeated. He made a move to grab the key and I watched him excitedly. I was so ready to get out of this fucking…

Just then, the dog, who hadn’t moved since he’d released Luffy from his mouth, surged forward, grabbing the key, and in one gulp, swallowed it whole. 

He fucking swallowed it. 

I stared at the dog, eyes wide. Did that...did that really just happen? Luffy and I froze upon hearing the ominous gulp as the key slid down the canine’s throat. 

Luffy snatched the dog up by his throat and began shaking him up and down repeatedly. “Spit it out you damn mutt!!!” he yelled, face red with anger. “That’s not food!!!!! GIVE IT BACK!!!!”

I sighed and facepalmed. “Luffy leave him be. He’s already swallowed it.” I sat back against the bars of the cage, rubbing my forehead tiredly. I had a helluva headache right now, and Luffy’s screaming certainly wasn’t helping. My side was still pulsing with pain and the constant ache was starting to piss me off. 

I felt someone then, their energy slowly nearing us. I didn’t sense any malevolence from them, so I pulled my knees up to my chest, resting my chin against them in a relaxed position. “We’ve got a visitor,” I said vaguely. Zoro and Luffy simply glanced at me and then peered in the direction that I was currently staring. 

“Huh?” I heard Nami murmur, and seconds later a man’s voice was heard. 

“Hey you dern whippersnappers,” he yelled, sounding a bit out of breath.“Quit picking on poor Chouchou! Put him down!!!” An old man came around the corner and began running towards us. He had fluffy white hair and makeshift armor over his yellow button up shirt and shorts. “How did you do that?” Nami asked, peering at me suspiciously. “I’m amazing,” I said lazily, and she growled at me, making me chuckle. This girl had anger issues. 

The old man stopped running when he saw Luffy and I in a cage. “Chouchou?” Luffy repeated, again prying the dog off of his face.

“Who’re you Ossan?” I asked curiously. 

“Ossan??!” he repeated, sounding offended. “I’m the mayor of this town, Mayor Boodle!” 

“.....did you mean to say poodle?” I asked, right eyebrow raised. “What? No,” he answered, confused. “....oh, okay…” I replied, squinting my eyes at the man’s hairstyle that very closely resembled a… “It’s just, your hairstyle makes you look like a..” 

“Let it go, Aela,” Zoro cut in, giving me a deadpan stare. Whatever. 

“That looks like a nasty injury,” I heard the Mayor say then. Puzzled, I turned my head to look at Boodle and noticed him pointing at someone. Following his finger with my sight, my heart dropped when my gaze stopped on Brother. What…

A medium sized patch of red was spreading over his left side, the exact spot that the knife was supposed to dig into him. “Zoro-nii?” I breathed out, feeling a lump build up in my throat. Zoro cursed and put a hand to his side, and when he pulled his hand away it was bloody. “But I thought…” I started, guilt pouring through me. 

“It’s fine, Aela,” he soothed, understanding my tone. “It’s just a scratch.” His brown eyes peered into my blue ones pleadingly, trying to make me feel better.“That’s a pretty serious scratch then, son,” the mayor pointed out, and the lump in my throat grew bigger; I swallowed it down harshly. “Shut up, old man,” Zoro growled. “I said it’s fine!” I knew he wanted the man to stop talking so I wouldn’t feel bad, but the damage had been dealt, both literally and figuratively. 

Useless. Fucking useless. My energy shield didn’t hold up for some reason against Buggy’s attack, and Zoro got hurt because of it. 

Guilty. 

Weak.

Fucking weak.

I grit my teeth in anger at my lack of strength, my hands balling into fists. I didn’t deserve to be on this crew. The only reason Luffy had recruited me was because of my brother. 

“Aela?” Luffy questioned me when I lowered my forehead completely to my knees, hiding my face entirely. I didn’t answer, the feel of my fingertips cutting into my palms the only thing I wanted to focus on right now. “I take it you folks ran into Buggy then, huh?” Mayor Boodle spoke, voice a little more hushed due to the now tense atmosphere. “Let’s get you to a doctor to get your side checked out.” 

No one really moved, and I could feel my brother’s heavy stare on me. “Go with him, please,” I said simply without looking up at him, voice muffled. A few more moments of silence. 

Zoro stared at his distraught sister, wishing that he could say something to make her feel better. Unfortunately, now was not the time nor the place, so instead of arguing with the mayor, he simply looked away from his sister, and to his captain. The two stared at each other seriously for one second...two….before they both nodded at the other, seemingly coming to some sort of agreement. 

Zoro turned and threw his hand out to gesture at the mayor in front of him to begin walking, and with one last look at his sister, the swordsman followed the white haired man. 

I listened to the crunch of their shoes on the gravel road which eventually faded away. How am I ever going to be strong enough to protect my crew? I can’t even protect my own brother.   
“If it wasn’t for your shield he would have been injured much worse,” Luffy spoke up then, and surprise shot through me. “He shouldn’t have been hurt at all,” I responded, peaking my face up from my knees to look solemnly at the dark haired teenager. “I’m not strong enough yet,” I continued, shame running through me. 

“Why didn’t you let me protect the cage when Buggy threw the knife?” I questioned my captain then, feeling defensive. “Is it because my shield failed with Zoro?” I threw out, terrified of the answer. He thought I was weak too. He must’ve known that my shield failed with Zoro and knew that I couldn’t protect him from the knife like I couldn’t protect Zoro. 

“No!!” he shouted out, halting my thoughts instantly. “Of course not, Aela!” He then grabbed my hands and held them tightly, forcing my fingers to unravel from where I’d been digging them into my palms. “You’d already protected Zoro, and there was no reason for you to get hurt again. It’s my job to protect my crew,” he finished, voice bitter, and I realized he was feeling guilt as well. 

“Luffy..” I breathed out, but before I could say anything else, the Mayor had made it back to us, sans my brother. “How’s Zoro?” Luffy asked, peeking through the bars. He was still holding my hands and I blushed, gently pulling them back to my lap. I blushed even more when I caught Nami smirking at me. I sent her a glare and huffed, turning my head away from her stare. 

“He needs to see a doctor,” Boodle said. “But he said he would just sleep it off, so he went to bed.” He sounded really puzzled when he said that, and I grinned in spite of myself. That’s my brother. The dog yawned then and Nami reached out to pet his head a bit. “So this dog is named Chouchou?” she asked. 

“What’s he just sitting here for?” Luffy questioned, eyebrows raising. “She’s guarding the shop,” poodle man answered. “I came to feed her.”

“Oh! She’s a guard dog!” Nami said, nodding. The girl looked around at the area we were in. “Pet food store?” “A good friend of mine owned the store,” poodle man began explaining. “About ten years ago, he and Chouchou opened up this little shop. They’ve got a lot of memories here, and so do I…” the man trailed off as he looked into the distance. 

“It’s his treasure,” I said softly, looking at the dog with soft eyes. Luffy heard me and nodded in affirmation of my statement. “See these wounds?” the Mayor pointed out. “She’s been fighting the pirates, protecting her store from them.”

“I’m sure that means a lot to her master, but this is just cruel!” Nami spoke vehemently. “Is he at the refugee shelter with the others?” The Mayor opened the door to the pet shop, walking in and disappearing for a bit before coming back out with a dish full of dog food. He set the dish in front of the dog, and Choucho instantly began chomping on the food. 

“No, he’s not..” the Mayor said, answering Nami. The man sat on the porch and watched Chouchou devour her food. “He got sick and passed away,” he finished, and I gasped. Poor puppy..

“He went to the hospital three months ago.” “The poor thing!” Nami spoke, sharing my sentiments. “You mean she’s been waiting for her master the whole time?” 

“That’s what everyone says, but that’s not what I think,” the Mayor shook his head. “Chouchou is a smart dog. She probably knows that her master is dead.” “Then why does she still guard the store?” asked Nami, and I spoke before realizing what I was doing. 

“It’s his treasure,” I said, watching the dog intently. “I think that Chouchou still guards the store because it’s all that’s left of her beloved master,” the Mayor confirmed, pulling out a pipe from his pocket and lighting it. “I’ve been trying to get her to the shelter but she won’t move from this spot,” he sighed, taking a long drag of his pipe. Smoke slowly curled away from the Mayor’s mouth, and I watched as it made its way into the sky. “She’d rather starve than leave her post.”

There was silence for a bit, and we all seemed to be lost in our own thoughts. I was jolted out of contemplation when I heard what sounded like a loud roaring noise in the distance. “Mohji the Lion Tamer!” the Mayor shouted, jolting up from his seat, and he and Nami ran off towards the noise. I blinked. “Was that...was that a lion?” I said to myself incredulously.


	8. Lion Tamer Mohji

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We see Aela a bit in action here for the first time I believe. We've seen her fight a little before, but this is the fist solo challenge for her in the story so far. 
> 
> Please enjoy!

Luffy began demanding the key from the dog again. “Luffy it’s no use. We’re stuck here for now,” I said grimly, and my hands twitched at the fear that flooded through me from the idea of being trapped. Luffy turned towards me, opening his mouth to argue, but before he could say anything, Chouchou began wildly barking at something. I felt two blots of energy coming this way. A wave of nausea came over me and I paled a little. Bad energy made me feel sick. 

My mouth dropped open in shock as a man riding a giant lion came into my view. “Well what do we have here?” the man, Mohji asked. He stopped in front of our cage, jumping down from the lion gracefully to land in front of us and Chou-Chou, who had not stopped baring her teeth at the strange looking man.

“I’m Mohji, Buggy’s first mate,” he started. “They call me the lion tamer.” “No shit,” I muttered, sarcasm coming through strong, and Luffy chuckled a bit. “I see your nakama have deserted you both.”

“What’s that weird thing on your head?” I pointed at him, trying to rile him up. “Shut up!” he shouted, and I grinned victoriously. That didn’t take much. 

“As I was saying,” he cleared his throat, “It’s too bad that they’ve deserted you. Just after you managed to escape as well. Captain Buggy was pretty worked up.” He grinned at us ferally when finished with his speech. 

I glanced behind the man to see the lion begin shifting from paw to paw as if readying himself. “You guys stirred up a real hornet’s nest.” 

“What’s with the weird animal suit?” Luffy’s question broke the tension in the air and I snorted. “This is my hair!!” the man shouted back, hands flying up to cradle his head. “If you think you’re safe in that cage, then you really don’t know who I am.”

I feel the opposite of safe in this thing. 

At this point the man turned his attention to Chou-Chou, who growled lowly at him. “There’s not an animal on Earth that I can’t control. I can even control that mutt.” He reached his hand to the dog, intending to shake her hand, when Chou-Chou reacted by reaching out and biting the man’s hand roughly with her sharp teeth. 

I winced in sympathy when the man yelled out in pain. That one hurt. The man reached out towards the dog and in retaliation, kicked her away. 

“Hey!” I shouted, furious. Nothing pissed me off faster than animal abuse. 

Mohji huffed and climbed back on to his lion. “Tell me where Roronoa Zoro is,” he demanded, and my face darkened. “No way in hell,” I spit out, and he narrowed his eyes at me. “Who might you be?” he questioned, and a smirk grew across my face. “Like I’d tell you. You’re no one special.”   
The lion man sputtered out in indignation. “Why you! Tell me where the pirate hunter is or die!”

“No!” Luffy and I shouted out at the same time, voices sharp. 

“Then die!”

“Get ‘em Richie!” he commanded, and the giant lion was running at us. Before I could make a shield, Luffy curled his body around me, and I grit my teeth when the lion shot his giant paw down at us. 

The force of his paw caused the cage to bend until it eventually crumbled beneath the beast’s paws. Pieces of the cage flew everywhere.

“I’m free!” Luffy shouted, and I laughed out loud with him. “Yeah!! Thanks lion dude!” I responded, and the man growled at me, “I wasn’t helping you!” 

Just then, Richie’s paw shot out, ramming into Luffy. I watched in shock as his body soared through the air, slamming into a building.

“You jerk!” I shouted, and my body automatically responded to my tone, shifting into a fighting stance. “Nobody could survive that,” Mohji commented airily. “Serves the boy right.” 

“C’mon Richie, let’s go find Roronoa.” They took a step forward and I snapped. “Hey bastards!” my voice came out as a growl. I jumped in front of both man and lion, and they stepped back a bit surprised. Anger flew through me even more when I realized they didn’t view me as a threat. 

“Don’t take another step,” I commanded, and Chou-Chou appeared beside me, barking wildly. The man smiled at us snidely. “Take care of these fleas, Richie.” 

The lion swiped his sharp claws at us. I jumped to the side, rolling smoothly on to my feet. 

“YIP!” A pained whimper. 

“No!” I shouted out, watching the puppy get swatted away. I ran towards the lion then, hoping to stop it before it attacked the guard dog again. Chou-Chou stood no chance against the beast, and there was no way in hell I was just going to allow the poor thing to get hurt after all she’d been through already. 

“Shield Construct!” I cried, thrusting my hand forward. A small, circular shield appeared in front of me, acting as a stepping stool for my next trick. I jumped on to my shield, using it to launch myself on to the lion’s back. Seconds later, the energy disintegrated away into nothing. 

“Shit!” I cursed, my hand reaching out to barely graze against the lion. My jump was too short!  
At the last second, my left hand was able to barely grasp on to the mane. I dangled in the air for a second, heart pounding. Taking a deep breath, I reached upwards and grabbed on to the hair with my right hand, beginning to climb on to the lion’s back. 

Off to the right of us, Chou-Chou was getting up from where Richie had side swiped her. She trembled for a second before getting to her feet completely. She ran with full speed towards the lion, and sank her teeth into the beast’s front leg. The lion roared out in pain, shaking its leg back and forth, trying to shake the tiny beast off, but the dog held firm. 

“Richie, bite!” Mohji commanded. Richie reached up his right leg that the dog was attached to, quickly bringing Chou-Chou towards his mouth. 

“NO!” I shouted out, horrified. He’d swallow her whole! I yanked out one of the daggers holstered to my left knee length boot, whispering a quiet apology to the lion. Grunting with the effort, I swung myself over to the lion’s back leg, and swung my dagger down. 

The dagger hit deeply, sinking through skin and bone. The lion roared out even louder than before when I pulled it out, and I cringed, feeling sick. I’m sorry. 

If I can just make it to his head… My plan was to take out the man controlling the beast. “How dare you!” I heard a voice shout, and quickly looked up. Mohji was glaring down at me from the lion’s head, and his face was dark with anger. He obviously didn’t appreciate me stabbing his pet...not that I could blame him. 

“You’ll regret that, girl!” he growled, reaching towards his back pocket. Mohji yanked a whip out from where it was curled into his back pocket, unfurling it and cracking it in the air menacingly. “I’ll teach you not to mess with my Richie!” he roared, snapping the whip towards me. 

I squealed and maneuvered my body to the side as best as I could, still hanging precariously on to the lion’s back leg. I’m gonna fall! I looked down fearfully, sweating bullets. Did he use that on his lion?!

THWACK!

“Ahh!” I cried out, the whip hitting my arm with a snap. I shut my eyes against the sharp pain, involuntary tears leaking out. Glancing at my arm, I winced at the red welt left over. 

“You son of a bitch!” I shouted out, furious. Pain made me angry. The man smiled at me, whip snapping towards me again. It hit my arm a second time, and that was it. My body reacted before my mind could, and I let go of the leg. 

I hit the ground with a loud thud, immediately curling my body up into a ball for protection. Thankfully I landed behind the lion so he wouldn’t be able to step on me. Gritting my teeth at the pain from the fall and the throbbing in my arm, I gingerly began pulling myself up. 

“Are you still coming after us bitch?!” I heard Mohji say. I looked up just in time to see Richie swinging a paw towards Chou-Chou, his sharp claws glinting in the sunlight. 

“Ena Bubble!” I cried out loudly, thrusting my hand towards the dog. A bubble of energy manifested itself around the mutt just as the claw came down onto her body, but I didn’t stop there. I knew it wouldn’t hold for long, and I was already running towards them. 

I got to the dog and rolled, scooping up the mutt and running towards the store. I kneeled down to her level. “Please, stay here,” I pleaded, looking into the dog’s big brown eyes. I put my hand on her head and gave her a rough pet before I stood and turned towards the lion tamer and his beast. 

My hands clenched into fists as I got closer to them. I knew there was a good chance that I was going to lose this fight. I just wasn’t strong enough. But I was going to do everything in my power to win. Zoro would never forgive me if I didn’t. 

I reached down and grabbed another dagger hidden in my boots, arming myself. “Inner Shield,” I muttered lowly, placing my hand over my heart. I felt a pulse of power run through me, and felt my skin tingle as the shield extended itself throughout my body. 

With Inner Shield I was able to direct the shield into my body. Instead of the bubble forming outside of my skin, it formed under. My body became much like Luffy’s actually. I couldn’t stretch my limbs of course, but attacks simply bounced off of me, bullets included. 

Like my outer shield though, it took my actual energy to keep the shield going, and I was drained afterwards. I wouldn’t be able to use this defense for long. 

I stopped directly in front of the crazy looking man and his lion. I smirked at them darkly and got into a defensive stance, body buzzing with energy. 

“You’re gonna have to go through me to get to this store, asshole,” I taunted.


	9. Whipped Into Shape

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Get ready for some protective big bro and Luffy time! Aela also kicks some ass as well, and we see a little bit more of the scope of her powers.

“I don’t want the store, stupid girl. I simply want the Pirate Hunter,” Mohji confirmed. 

“My brother has no business with you,” I denied, sniffing. “Your brother?!” he shrieked, and I rolled my eyes. “That means that you’re..”

“Roronoa Aela..yeah I am,” I answered, exasperated. “You guys need to do more research! It was my idea for him to even begin hunting pirates!” 

“It’s no matter,” he continued, ignoring my pouting. “I’ll bring the both of you in.” He stepped in front of Richie, grinning darkly, his whip dragging behind him. “Better yet, I’ll use you as leverage to draw your brother out.” 

“Tch,” I scoffed, but eyed the whip warily. That thing hurt. “Like I’d ever be brought down by a weirdo like you. Seriously, what’s with the hair?” I ended, genuinely curious. Was that natural, or?...

“STOP IT WITH THE HAIR!!” he yelled out, and I chuckled. 

“Taste my whip!” The whip snapped towards me, but I was ready this time. I threw my body to the side, rolling back up to a standing position. “You’re really starting to piss me off with that thing!” I growled out. 

I began running full speed towards the man, startling him. I guess he was expecting a trick of some kind, but that’s not my style. Honestly, my favorite style of fighting is just….

“Ena Punch!” Punching it out. 

“Gah!!! My nose!” Mohji flew back and slammed into the wall of the pet shop. He laid there for a bit, blood pouring from his now broken nose. 

I realized from a very young age (along with Zoro) that I wasn’t exactly blessed with sword swinging abilities. In fact, weapons in general just weren’t my thing. I learned how to use them of course. How could I not with Zoro as my brother? He taught me how to use a sword and dagger, along with throwing stars and knives. My aim was pretty good when aiming a gun, and I’m even decent at throwing a spear along with knives. 

My fists, however, were my true passion. I was only five foot two, however my punches still managed to throw a grown man on his ass. It didn’t hurt of course that I’d figured out a way to mold my energy around my fist, multiplying the power of my punch. I stood there while Mohji gingerly stood up from the ground, groaning. My energy pulsed around my fist, melding and flowing around my fingers like a well fit glove. 

“You bitch!” The lion tamer moaned, blood leaking from in between his fingers where he was gingerly holding his nose. The words came out sounding like, “Boo bitch!”

My nose flared a bit. “I’m getting real tired of being called a bitch today..” I muttered to him lowly. He gulped at my tone, glancing behind him. 

“Richie!” 

Oh shit! How did I forget about the lion??

I got up and turned to face the beast, but within seconds, quickly found myself soaring through the sky from the force of Richie’s side swipe. I slammed into the wall with a grunt, my head hitting the stone wall with a sickening crack. 

The only thing that saved me was my Inner Shield, which was thankfully still in place. That was probably the only reason I didn’t have a hell of a concussion right now. Not like I haven’t gotten tons of those in the past. 

Ohhh Zoro gets so mad at me… I shuddered at the thought. I slid down the wall a little, making sure I was steady on my feet. I don’t wanna attack the kitty but….

“Sorry about this kitty cat,” I said out loud reaching for the daggers held in the harness of my right boot. “Sorry for what?” Mohji cackled. “Looks like you’re finished girl..”

I charged forwards to the lion, evading the man’s attacks. When I got close enough to the beast, he lunged. I feinted as though I would be jumping upward to evade the attack, and heard his exclamation of surprise when I instead slid downward, under the beast’s stomach. I slashed into the lion’s primordial pouch, making sure that my cuts didn’t go too deeply. I genuinely didn’t want to kill the poor beast. After all, he wasn’t at fault here; he was just being controlled by an asshole. 

I slid out from under the lion completely, pivoting around to face the man and beast. The lion groaned out, his tone deep and pained, and promptly fell over. He twitched once or twice, attempting to get up, but finally, lay still. He let out a final groan of defeat, and then was quiet. 

“Richie?” Mohji called his lion’s name, voice sounding scared, and for a second, I felt true remorse wash over me. Maybe I shouldn’t have…

“You...you..” the man turned to me then. He was trembling in anger, and I readied myself. “Listen…” I started, “I didn’t kill him..he’s just…”

“FEEL THE WRATH OF A LION TAMER!” Quicker than lightning, Mohji had flicked his whip towards me. I tried dodging, but unfortunately, my shield draining my energy meant my speed was lowered. I jumped to the left just as the whip came cracking down. I felt air hit my face from the force of it snapping through the air and I gulped. That was way too close. 

Crack!

I tried diving out of the way for the next attack, but I wasn’t fast enough. The whip cracked me in the side, and I cried out. The attack didn’t hurt me, but the force of it caused my inner shield to die out. 

I crouched on the ground, panting. This guy just kept coming. Mohji’s hand lifted up once more, and my eyes closed reflexively. 

Crack! 

“YIP!” 

“Whaa..” Stunned, my eyes shot open. Chou-Chou had jumped in front of me, protecting me from the whip. “Chou-Chou?...” I whispered, heart beating wildly. I ran up to the pup, tears leaking from my eyes when I noticed that her side was bleeding. 

“No no no… Please be okay..” Leaning down on one knee, I picked her up gently, turning her towards me. “Puppy?” she whimpered in pain and I sighed out in relief. Thank the gods…

“Don’t ignore me!” I heard the whip before I felt it. It cracked across my shoulder and I grit my teeth. I held one arm above my head while the other held Chou-Chou protectively to my chest. 

I transferred the energy from my hand to cover my arm, and just in time too, because the whip cracked again, wrapping around my arm. I glared at the lion tamer, ignoring the burning sting of the cut now bleeding on my shoulder. “You’re a bastard for picking on a defenseless pup…” I grit out, anger flooding through me. 

“You’re just a meddling bitch! I was going to keep you alive to lure your brother out, but you’ve pissed me off now.”

He yanked the whip back and I gasped as Chou-Chou and I were flung to the side. I skidded across the street, concrete and gravel scraping at my shoulders, knees, and back. “No!” I cried out when Chou-Chou was released out of my arms with the force of the pull. 

Crack!

The whip cracked towards Chou-Chou and I gasped, quickly throwing my Ena Bubble out to surround the dog. “What’s this?” I heard the man say, snapping his whip towards the dog. I winced when it hit the bubble, but grinned victoriously at the man’s aggravation when he realized he couldn’t reach the dog. “It’s not a bother,” he chuckled evilly, pulling another whip from his back pocket. 

“Are you fuckin serious??!” I shouted, eyes wide. Why did he need TWO whips?! In the next moment, one whip was snapping towards Chou-Chou, and the next, towards me. I groaned out, tears coming to my eyes at the sharp sting across my back. He laughed and flung both at the same time, one hitting my back and the other slamming on to the bubble. 

I bit my tongue to keep from crying out; my pain was increasing, and the shield flickered for a second, making Mohji gasp in delight. I grit my teeth though and threw my hand out, focusing all of my attention into keeping the shield strong. There was only one way that shield was coming down, and I wasn’t dead yet. I grinned in delight when the shield not only became whole again, but became thicker as it strengthened. 

Crack! Crack! Crack!

“Fuck you!” I screamed out, my body writhing now. Skin had been broken, and blood was dampening my shirt, which was in rags. I didn’t care about my stomach showing, but I was very grateful for the wrap around my breasts. 

“Come speak with me, girl,” the man chuckled darkly, and then, I was choking. He had given up on attacking Chou-Chou, which I was grateful for, but was now focusing all of his attention on me. The whip wrapped around my neck, the lion tamer jerking me towards him roughly. If I wasn’t too busy yanking at the noose around my neck I would’ve cussed him out at the painful rocks digging into my side. 

I can’t….breathe.. I was gasping pathetically now, trying desperately to pull the whip from my neck. I didn’t have the strength to remove the whip, due to the majority of my energy going into protecting Chou-Chou. 

The edges of my vision began dimming. My hand began trembling and losing strength….

I felt his energy before I saw him. 

Thud!

The pulling of the whip stopped very suddenly, the binds loosening around my neck. I flopped to the ground limply like a fish out of water, breathing in air so quickly I began hacking. 

“What the hell….” a very familiar voice said lowly, voice trembling with anger. I almost didn’t hear him due to coughing so loudly. My eyes shot open and I turned my head to the right. Luffy, bless him, was standing with his back towards me. One foot on the whip, pinning it to the ground. His precious hat was tilted over his head, hiding his eyes. His aura was dark, and I almost felt sorry for the bastard. 

Almost. 

“...are you doing to my nakama?” he finished his question by tugging on the whip sharply, yanking it out of the man’s hand. 

“Eh?” the man gasped, backing up quickly from the boy who had begun quickly winding his right arm up. Without even looking at the man in front of him, Luffy reared back his arm, sending it flying towards the lion tamer. His fist slammed into the man’s jaw, sending him flying into the air. The captain’s hand stayed on the man’s face even as Mohji flew upwards, his arm stretching. When the poor man was almost on the ground again, Luffy stretched his other arm up, yanking Mohji down to Earth. 

The ground shook from the impact of the man’s body hitting the ground. His head cracked into the pavement. The man was still after that, and Luffy stood huffing for a little bit longer, before turning around and walking towards me. 

I was still on the ground. I could’ve gotten up at this point, but hey, I was exhausted and wanted to watch the show. “That was awesome!” I told him giddily. Luffy said nothing, simply came over to me and grabbed my arms. 

I groaned as he gently pulled me up. As soon as I was up to my full height, my legs buckled, but he quickly grabbed my waist, holding me up. I blushed brightly, face burning, but the blush faded into anxiety when I saw Luffy’s face. There was worry in his eyes as he looked me over, and I grinned at him reassuringly. “I’m fine, Cap,” I confirmed, even as I felt blood slide down my back. 

His eyes travelled down to my arm where the raised welts from the whip had indented itself into my skin; the pain was still pulsating angrily through me. Finally, his dark eyes moved to my neck and there they stayed; I didn’t like the look in his eyes, which screamed of guilt and immense anger that was still running through him. 

I noticed that his hat was hanging around his neck, so I reached out and placed it on his head, straightening it for him. “There,” I started, smiling at him gently, “we’re all good now.”

His eyes lightened a tad, and he gave me a small smile. It was weak, but better than nothing; it would have to do for now. 

Then I remembered. 

“Chou-Chou,” I murmured, fear running through me. I’d had my shield around her, but what if it failed like it did with Zoro? Did she get hit just as many times as me? 

“Bark!” 

Letting out a huge breath of relief I peered around Luffy. Chou-Chou was on her feet again, looking at us expectantly. I walked, or rather jogged, over to the mutt, kneeling down to her level. I heard Luffy suck in air when my back came into view, but I ignored him. 

Running my hands carefully through Chou-Chou’s fur, I winced when I found the spot the whip had touched. She jumped away from my hands a bit, but I soothed her with low whisperings.   
Upon closer inspection I could see that the whip had definitely touched her, but the wound was artificial. It had broken the skin, but her fur thankfully took the majority of the blow. 

“Thank goodness,” I breathed, sitting back on my feet. I sent the dog a playful glare. “Dumb mutt, making me worry like that,” I teased, giving her a rough pat on the head. She yipped at me and I grinned. 

“She’s all good, Cap!” I confirmed, glancing around me to the dark haired boy. “That’s great!” he laughed, wide smile on his face, and I felt relief run through me at his smile. Luffy’s not meant to be dark; Luffy was the epitome of sunshine. 

“I’m so pathetic!” The two of us startled a bit, looking down the street to see the Mayor running towards the both of us with a fierce scowl on his face. 

I was surprised and irritated to see the orange haired girl with him. What was her name again? 

“Where the hell were you, Nayomi??” I questioned her, gingerly beginning to stand up from my crouched position. I smiled at Captain in thanks when he reached a hand down for me to grab, gently pulling me up next to him. 

“It’s Nami you…” she started, her voice loud with annoyance, but it trailed off when she got a good look at me. “What happened to you?” she questioned, voice still sounding irritated. I knew better though; I heard that small amount of concern leak into her tone. Instead of answering her question I sent her a smug smile. Awww..looks like the witch does have a heart. Her eyes lit up with anger and the concern went away. 

“Chou-Chou and you young-uns fought so hard yet why must I, the mayor, sit by and watch our town be obliterated?”   
“I don’t think you could’ve done much old man,” I started, trying to soothe him. 

“40 years ago this island was a barren land,” he continued, ignoring me, “but we worked hard to build it to what it is today! This town is a treasure to me and its citizens. I cannot allow those dirty pirates to have their way anymore!”

BOOM!

A huge blast suddenly erupted, destroying the opposite side of the street. Multiple buildings were destroyed. 

“Was that..” Nami started, eyes wide at the destruction. “Buggy…” I growled, jaw tight. His damn Buggy Ball took out a block of the town!!

“M-m-my home…” the mayor stuttered. My heart sank for the man. To see his home disappear right in front of his eyes…

“ZORO WAS IN THERE!” Luffy shouted suddenly. “WHAT?!” I gasped, turning to the boy. I grabbed a hold of his face with both hands and pulled, cheeks stretching. “You’re just now telling me??!!”

“You knew already!” he protested, but it came out garbled. 

“Zoro!” I began to run towards the rubble, heart in my throat. I stopped though when some of the debris started to shake, and suddenly, a green head burst through the wreckage. 

“That’s one helluva way to wake a guy up,” a gravelly voice griped, and I couldn’t stop myself. 

“Zoro-niiiiiiii!!!” I shouted, launching myself at my brother. He grunted when I ran into him, the force of it pushing him back. I wrapped myself around him like a koala and he gently began trying to pry me off. 

“How are you still alive?!” Nami exclaimed, pure shock in her voice. “Zoro-nii has a hard head,” I said, but it was muffled due to my head being shoved into his shoulder. 

“Aela..get..off..” the green haired man grunted, plucking my arms off of him. Every time he yanked a limb off, it stuck right back to him, like he was a giant magnet. 

His hand pressed against my back, and the tattered remains of my shirt dug into the still slightly weeping wounds left from the whip. I stiffened for a millisecond, and of course he noticed. He always noticed. 

“What…” he started, and then stopped. I looked up from where I had my head hidden in the crook of his neck, and cringed at the sight. 

Zoro was staring at his hand that was placed on my back a second ago. There was blood on his fingertips, my blood, and his face was slowly darkening into the face I hated. 

Shit.

I let him untangle my limbs from his body, already dreading what was coming. I stood in front of him like a wounded puppy, head down. I felt his eyes trail over my body, stopping on my arms, shoulders. His hand grabbed gently on to my chin, and he moved my face back and forth, taking note of the cuts and scratches and growing bruises on my cheeks. There was a small scratch above my left eye which had begun slowly bleeding, and he gently wiped it away with his thumb. 

“Zoro…” I started. 

“Hush,” he cut me off, and my mouth snapped shut. He slowly turned my body around, and when he saw the mess that was my back, drew in a sharp breath. I knew what he was seeing. Mohji had hit the same spots numerous times, the whip weakening the skin and causing it to break. 

Blood was dripping down from the wounds that stretched from my right shoulder all the way down to right below my left thigh. 

I turned to face him, opening my mouth to explain...and then I wish I hadn’t. Zoro-nii’s face was zeroed in on my neck, which was an angry red color. It was raw from the weapon being wrapped around it, and from the force of being dragged across the pavement. 

“What. the hell…” Zoro’s voice breathed, and I gulped. 

Double shit.


	10. Clown Kickin' Time!

“You’ve got 10 seconds,” Zoro said simply, face closed off. I started fidgeting, feeling like a little girl all over again. 

“What’s happening?” I heard the orange girl whisper. “Zoro doesn’t like it when Aela gets hurt,” Luffy answered and I scoffed. That’s an understatement. 

“Zoro-nii, before you get pissed, which I can see has already happened, you really should let me explain..” my voice trailed off, waiting. 

No change. 

“Okay..so...so we were stuck in the cage right? Remember the cage?”

Nothing. 

“.........Well….after you left this huge lion came around the corner, and there was this guy, Mohji, who looked like a lion himself now that I think about it..which is probably why his hair was like that…”

“6 seconds…” he interrupted, making my heart beat erratically. I took a deep breath...

“Luffy was knocked into a building and there was a puppy protecting this store cuz her owner died and I didn’t want the puppy to get hurt so I fought the lion guy who had this whip and I had to stab his pet lion which made me feel really bad cuz it wasn’t his fault he wasn’t a bad lion it was the guy controlling him but I stabbed him in the thigh and stomach and then the weird guy got really pissed at me and smacked me with his whip a couple times and I didn’t wanna fight niichan but the guy was after you and I couldn’t let him find you of course so I..” 

“Stop,” the green haired teenager commanded, and I did gratefully. My lungs were burning from spitting all of that out at the same time and I gasped for air. 

“Where is he?” the pirate hunter asked, and no one needed to question whom he was speaking about. 

“I got him,” Luffy’s voice cut through the air then, and I glanced behind to see that while his voice sounded relaxed and Luffy-like, if that’s a thing, his dark eyes were staring seriously into Zoro’s. They were obviously having some sort of silent, private conversation about me, that I wasn’t invited to. 

Zoro’s brows furrowed in concentration as he stared at Luffy, looking for something in the dark haired boy’s eyes. He apparently found what he was searching for, because after a few seconds he nodded at Straw Hat, and gently hit me upside the back of my head. 

It didn’t hurt in the least, but I grabbed the back of my head anyway, turning towards my brother angrily.“What was that for you big meanie?!!”

“I told you to stay out of trouble,” he reprimanded me and I sniffed. “I’m not the one who got a building blown up on top of me,” I mumbled childishly. 

“WHAT WAS THAT, BRAT?!!” Zoro shouted, shaking his fist at me. 

“YOU’RE DUMB!!” I shouted back, sticking my tongue out at him. He took a step towards me threateningly, and I ran and hid behind Luffy who chuckled at us. 

“I can’t stand it anymore!!” the mayor suddenly exclaimed, and I jumped. I’d forgotten all about the guy for a second there… “Some random scum bag has no right to destroy our 40 years of hard labor! I am this town’s mayor and I will protect this town or die trying!”  
“Hey wait!” Nami stopped the man who started walking towards Buggy’s base. “Don’t be so hasty!”

“There are fights a man can’t run from, missy,” he said. “Isn’t that right, young-uns?!”

“Yeah!” Luffy agreed, pumping his fist in the air. “That’s right!” I shouted, stomping my right foot in excitement. 

“Don’t urge him on!” the thief said worriedly. “What can he possibly accomplish by charging at them? It’s suicide!”  
“I’m aware of that!” the mayor cried, and pulled himself out of Nami’s hold, running off into the distance.

Silence from the four of us. 

“...........Whelp, he’s gonna die,” I said bluntly, and cried out when I felt not one, but two punches hit the back of my head. 

“Don’t say that!” Nami. 

“Don’t be so callous!” Zoro’s voice. 

“Why are yall so mean,” I whined, nursing my fresh bumps. “I’m injured!”

“Looks like the fun’s about to start!” Luffy laughed, and Zoro nodded in agreement. “Sure does.”

“How can you guys be laughing at a time like this?” Nami demanded, throwing her hands up at us. “It’ll be fine,” Luffy reassured, readjusting his hat. “I like that old guy.”

“Meh..he’s a little strange,” I commented, shrugging. “You’re one to talk…” Zoro muttered, and I stuck my foot out towards him, ‘accidentally’ causing him to stumble. 

“You little shit!” 

“Oops..I didn’t see you there Niichan!” I snickered.

“Why you…”  
“Geesh, you guys argue like siblings!” Nami complained, and I blinked at her owlishly. 

“But...we are siblings Nayomi…” I stuttered, and she whipped around to face me, shark teeth in full force. 

“I WON’T TELL YOU AGAIN! MY NAME IS NAMI!” 

“Blehhhh!!!!” I stuck my tongue out at her and blew bubbles. Off to the side, Zoro sighed. 

“Unfortunately, she’s right. Same parents and everything.” “What do ya mean by that?!” I stopped growling at my brother and turned to the girl, one eyebrow lifted up in puzzlement. “Can’t you tell? I mean, same green hair and everything,” I gestured between the two of us pointedly. 

“I guess…” she trailed off. “It’s a different shade of green though, and your eye color is different.” “It’s cuz of my devil fruit,” I shrugged. “When I ate it, my hair and eyes lightened up. That’s why I look normal and Brother here still looks like a bush.”

“You outta be glad you’re injured, twerp,” Zoro huffed, and I grinned at him cheekily. “So what’s our next move, Cap?” I turned to the teenager, energy flowing through me. I was still in pain, but adrenaline was an amazing thing, and I was pretty high on it right now. 

“Well,” he started, “Our destination is the Grand Line so our next move is simple. We have to go steal the map from Buggy.” He grinned widely at us and directed his next statement to the thief, “Join our crew, Nami!” 

“I’m never going to be a pirate,” Nami began, slapping Luffy’s hand out of her way, “but how about we team up for our common goal?” 

“Shishishishishi,” Luffy laughed, and I took that to mean he accepted her cryptic answer for now. 

“Alright!” I shouted out, punching Zoro’s shoulder in excitement. “Let’s go kick that clown’s ass!” “Don’t be so excited!” Nami scolded all of us. I realized that we all had shit eating grins on our faces, and I felt mine fade a little bit at her words. “This is no laughing matter!” 

“Don’t worry,” Luffy soothed, wide smile across his face. “I like that old man. I won’t let him get killed.” And with that statement, we took off in the direction that the mayor had run. 

goldgoldgoldgoldgoldgoldgoldgoldgoldgoldgoldgoldgold

The four of us arrived at the bottom of Buggy’s base. The mayor was currently in a face off against Buggy, and the clown was taunting him from the rooftops. I was impressed to see that the mayor was holding a spear in his hand...however, a second later I felt a little nauseous. Buggy’s detached hand was wrapped around the mayor’s throat. 

I shivered. Something about that was just...icky. Suddenly, the mayor was lifted into the air, legs flailing about. He tried in vain to kick his way free, but he was outnumbered due to the cannon being pointed towards him. 

“I’ll bet you a strawberry pie that there’s a Buggy Ball in the cannon,” I whispered, and Zoro grunted. 

“I-I won’t let you destroy this town!” the mayor choked out, and I grit my teeth at the determination in his voice. “Even if it costs me my life!” 

“Tch,” Buggy scoffed at the pitiful man in front of him. “Is the Buggy Ball ready?! On my mark, get ready to fi-”

“I’M BACK!” Luffy shouted suddenly, appearing in front of the Mayor. I blinked. Geez he’s quick. 

Captain reached out and pried the clown’s hand off of the mayor’s neck. He took several breaths of fresh air, and I reached up to rub my own neck, cringing in sympathy for the man. “I’m here to kick your ass just like I promised,” Luffy continued, waving Buggy’s hand at him mockingly. Straw Hat let go of the disembodied hand and it flew back towards its owner. 

“Are you alright, old man?” I questioned, rubbing his back as he coughed. “I’m fine,” he answered, looking at me gratefully. 

“How dare you come walking back here so flashily!?” the clown captain shouted, voice indignant. “You brats must enjoy pain!!”

“Listen!” Nami cut in. “All I want is the map and the treasure.” “Yeah we figured that,” I responded, rolling my eyes. 

“What are you all doing here?!” the mayor questioned angrily. I knew he wasn’t truly angry at us; simply concerned. “You young-uns are outsiders. This is not even your fight.” He held the spear out towards Buggy. “I will protect this town or die trying!” 

Luffy reached out then and punched the mayor, knocking him out cold. I squawked at the random attack, but quickly reached for the poor man, making sure he didn’t hit the hard ground. Even Buggy seemed surprised at the younger captain’ actions. 

“What the hell?! Whose side are you on?” Nami bellowed out in anger. “Why’d you do that to the mayor?” 

“He was in the way,” Luffy grinned, his eyes now targeting the clown captain. 

“It was for the best,” Zoro grunted, helping me carry the guy to a safe spot. “He was just going to get in our way otherwise.” “I feel like we coulda tried talkin’ to him first though…” my voice trailed off. 

“You’re too reckless,” Nami spat at Luffy.

Nami’s words rang true when the next thing Luffy decided to do was tilt his head back and belt the words, “Fight me BIIIIIIGGGGG NOOOOOOSSEEE!” His voice rang confidently through the air. 

I cracked up at the screams of horror that erupted due to Luffy’s battle cry. The orange girl bawled her hands up towards her face and gawked at Captain. “What the hell is wrong with you?!! That’s the one thing you should never say to him! I was right!! You’re just an idiot pirate!!!”

I wiped imaginary tears from my eyes as Zoro began readying his swords. “Hey,” his voice cut to me then. “Pay attention.” I nodded at him, impish grin remaining on my face, but eyes sharp. I’d been studying the rooftops since we got here. I wonder who was going to attack first…

“Damn you, you flashy idiot!” Buggy shouted, beyond pissed. “I’ll teach you to mess with me!! FIRE THE BUGGY BALL!!!”

Nami screamed loudly and ran away from Luffy and the rest of us as fast as she could, screaming, “Look what you idiots did! Why’d you have to say that?! You’ve killed us!”

“OI! Luffy get the hell out of the way!” Zoro shouted, but our captain did nothing. He simply stood there as the ball got closer and closer. I stood right behind Luffy, puzzled at his reaction. 

“Aela what the hell are you doing??!” Zoro screamed at me. He tackled me to the ground seconds before the ball was to hit. I wasn’t concerned about me though. 

“Captain!” I shouted, struggling against my brother. “Luffy move!”

“That measly cannonball’s not gonna work on me!” Straw Hat shouted, and my mouth hung open in shock. What is he…

“Gomu gomu BALLOON!!!” The cannonball slammed into Luffy’s stomach who had at this point, sucked in so much air his body had expanded to the size of a hot air balloon. Zoro and I watched in shock as the cannon ball bounced right off of the teenager’s stomach, flying back into the direction in which it was launched. 

“WHAT THE HELL IS THIS GUY??!!” Buggy shouted, eyes practically falling out of his skull. “HE TOOK A DIRECT HIT!” the clown’s crew shouted behind him. Buggy and his crew screamed when the cannonball blew not only the rooftop away, but destroyed the entire building, leaving behind nothing but rubble. 

“Shit, Captain, at least warn us next time,” Zoro scoffed, but he had a shit eating grin on his face as the both of us stood up from our position on the ground. 

“That was amazing!!” I had stars in my eyes, staring with awe at Luffy who was grinning ear to ear. “You just bounced it off of you!” I ran up to Luffy, poking his stomach and stretching his skin. “Shishishisshi,” the teenager merely laughed and rubbed his finger under his nose. 

“What the heck are you?!” Nami raged, stomping over to Luffy. “No human being is able to survive a cannon ball to the stomach!! Explain yourself, pirate!” “Hey lady, lay off!” I shot back, annoyed with her tone. “We’re alive aren’t we? That should be good enough.” 

“I’m just trying to understand what’s happening!” the orange girl huffed. “Our captain is frickin’ awesome!” I explained to her in a ‘duh’ voice. “That’s what’s happening!” 

An angry tick appeared on her forehead and she opened her mouth, probably to yell at me some more, but the sound of wood breaking and glass bottles shattering interrupted her. We all turned to see Buggy making his way out of the rubble. He was holding something in his arms, and I squinted trying to see what it was. 

Nami gasped out in shock. “He used his crew members as shields.” “What?!” I cried, disgusted. What kind of low-life bastard would do such a thing?! 

“Captain Buggy!” Suddenly, Mohji, the lion tamer, came running towards the clown captain, both hands in the air. “These guys are trouble. The red haired bitch took down Richie and the black haired boy is made of rubber!”

Zoro growled when he heard the man’s words, hand automatically reaching for his swords. “Is this who..” he asked me quietly, and I nodded, trying to resist the urge to grab my neck. 

“A rubber person?” Nami echoed, openly staring at Luffy. “I got him, Zoro,” Luffy stated, ignoring Nami’s state of shock. Luffy’s arm stretched out then, moving all the way down the street to slam his fist into the lion tamer’s face. The punch hit the man right between the eyes, sending him straight back to where he came from. “STAY DOWN!” he shouted. 

Zoro relaxed his stance, though he still looked a little pissed. Luffy turned to Nami then, grinning at her as if nothing had happened. “Yeah that’s right. I’m a rubber man.”


	11. Cabaji the Acrobat!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Zoro gets a little beat up in this chapter, and we see the darker side of Aela come out. Remember, she shares blood with Zoro the demon, so she's not all sunshine and roses all of the time, especially when her brother's life is in danger. 
> 
> Enjoy! 
> 
> edited on February 22, 2021

Luffy turned to Nami after bouncing the cannon ball back at Buggy’s crew. He was grinning at her as if nothing had happened. “Yeah that’s right. I’m a rubber man.”   
“That explains how he bounced the ball back,” Buggy murmured. “Devil fruit user, huh?” 

“Nope, it’s all natural,” I sassed, and the clown cut his eyes to me. Zoro elbowed me a bit, pushing himself in front of me. “This is not the time for your mouth, Aela.”

“Sorry Brother,” I snickered, using my left hand to rub the back of my hand sheepishly. “Can’t help myself sometimes.” Just then, a new man shot out from the debris. He was also holding an unconscious man in his arms, and I growled when he tossed the body aside. “They treat their crew members like trash,” I cursed. 

At my words, Luffy glanced over at me. He had managed to maintain his carefree aura, but his jaw and shoulders were tense. He wasn’t happy with Buggy’s treatment towards his crew any more than I was; being the captain he was actually probably more upset. 

¨Captain Buggy,¨ the new man started, his thick blue and white checkered scarf blowing in the wind, ¨leave this trash to me, please.”

¨Very well, Cabaji,” Buggy answered, and I bit my tongue. ¨His voice makes me want to punch him in the throat,” I murmured, and Zoro hummed in agreement. 

¨Show them your acrobat show!¨

The black haired man, Cabaji, leapt high in the air. He landed on a unicycle and came cycling towards us, sword in his hand. His blade was aimed towards Luffy. ¨I, Acrobat Cabaji, Chief of Staff, will take on Captain Buggy´s anger!¨

Zoro sprang up from beside me then. 

Clang!

The green haired man jumped in front of the unicycle, swinging one of his swords out to block the other man´s blade with his own. ¨I´ll clash swords with you,¨ my brother confirmed, and I pumped my fist into the air. ¨Yeah! Get him, Brother!¨

¨Roronoa Zoro,¨ Cabaji began, eyes narrowing and then shooting to me, ¨and Roronoa Aela I presume. It's a pleasure to meet the two of you. I would be honoured to slay a swordsman such as yourself.¨ 

¨Like that would ever even become a possibility,¨ I sniffed, but silently glanced down to Zoro´s side, where his bandages were slowly becoming dotted with new blood. I was worried for my brother, but I would be a fool to relay that fear out loud, where the enemy could hear. 

Nami, however, had no such thought process. ¨Zoro you can´t fight! Your wounds aren't..¨

¨Stay out of this,¨ Zoro interrupted the girl, his voice a growl. ¨This is my fight.¨

¨But..¨ she started to say, but Luffy stopped her now. ¨Let him,¨ the straw hat boy said with a grin. ¨He just said this was his fight.¨

The straw hat swordsman smirked towards his captain in appreciation. Nami looked over at me, gesturing towards my brother. ¨You have nothing to say about this?! He's your brother. He can't possibly fight in these conditions!¨ 

I said nothing, but silently observed my brother for a few seconds longer, before nodding. ¨Zoro is gonna kick his ass.¨ 

¨Damn right I am,” Zoro confirmed, placing his sword in his mouth and readying himself. ¨What is wrong with you people?!¨ Nami screamed, completely done with the situation. 

¨Acrobat Technique: Old Man Arsonist!¨ Cabaji called out suddenly. The black haired man puckered his lips, blowing out a giant stream of fire that went directly into Zoro-nií´ś face. 

I grit my teeth in anger when Zoro cried out in pain, stumbling away from the fire. When Zoro stepped back away from the fire, Cabaji swung his leg out, kicking Zoro directly into his bleeding wound. 

¨Bastard!” I roared, unconsciously stepping forward. Luffy's hand on my arm stopped my movements. 

¨GAHHH!¨ Zoro fell onto his back, writhing in pain. I dug my nails so hard into my fists that I felt them break skin. ¨What's wrong?¨ Cabaji taunted. ¨I'm sure I didn't kick you that hard.¨

Luffy watched the fight calmly, his face blank, but every time I moved forward half an inch, he quickly pulled me back beside him. Nami seethed, ¨He fights dirty going after his injury like that.¨

¨Acrobat Technique: Murder at the Steam Bath!¨ Cabaji stabbed his sword into the ground then, spinning around multiple times on his unicycle. He kicked up the dust which whirled up around them, hiding him from Zoro's eyes. ¨What steam?¨ Zoro scoffed, picking himself off of the ground. ¨That's an ordinary cloud of dust!¨ 

I wasn't convinced of that though. I watched the cloud of dust closely, my hands instinctively preparing themselves to form my shield. 

A glint of steel from within the cloud. 

¨Zoro!¨ I shouted out a warning too late. Zoro raised his two katanas to block the sudden attack from Cabaji. Their two weapons met, however Cabaji´s leg kicked out as they did so. 

Thwack!

I watched as blood sprayed out from my brother´s wound. He rolled to the ground, yelling even louder than before. 

A red haze overtook me at that moment. I heard nothing, saw nothing, but Cabaji, grinning wickedly at my brother writhing on the ground. I didn't even realize I was walking until I felt Luffy's arm wrap around my shoulders, halting me in my tracks. 

¨Aela,¨ he started, and my captain´s voice broke through the fury I was feeling. ¨Think about what's on the line for him right now.¨ I growled, nearly spitting in my anger, but ceased my movements. He was right. As much as it physical killed me to see my brother in this much pain, he would never forgive me if I interrupted his fight. 

¨Why did you stop Aela??!¨ Nami shouted, and I turned to her. ¨How is he even still alive? I thought you were crew mates! He's your brother! He's going to die! Is that what you want??!!¨

¨You know nothing of what I want,¨ I spat at the girl, head turning towards her. Her eyes widened, breath catching in her throat.¨Stepping into his fight right now would be a fate far worse than death. It's not merely his life at stake.¨

“Your eyes…” she murmured, voice faint. I felt surprise run through me at her words, but said nothing, merely turning back to watch the fight. My powers activated on their own when I was pissed; my eyes were probably glowing white right now in my anger which had understandably startled Nami. 

¨Roronoa Zoro is about to get defeated!!¨ Cabaji shouted, raising his sword in the air. The unicycle man charged forward on his bike. Zoro got to his feet a third time, face scrunched in pain, side covered with blood, but stance unwavering. He clutched two katanas in his hand. ¨Annoying bastard,¨ he growled. ¨Is kicking my wound that much damn fun?!!!¨

¨Don´t fuckin´ do it,¨ I cursed, causing Luffy to cut his eyes to me. Zoro stood his ground against the man as his sword came closer and closer towards him. Instead of dodging or even moving out of his way though, he stood in place allowing Cabaji´s sword to pierce his open wound. Blood spilt from his side much quicker now, creating a small puddle on the ground. 

Pieces of Zoro´s now shredded bandages floated slowly to the ground as Cabaji cycled past him. ¨Wh-Why didn´t he dodge?¨ Nami stuttered, face pale. ¨Is this enough of a handicap for you?¨ Zoro taunted, grinning edgily at the now very confused Buggy crewman. 

The green haired man´s fist tightened around his katanas and he lifted them into his signature stance. ¨I´ll show you the difference in levels between you and me.¨

¨Yeah!!! So cool!!!¨ Luffy cheered, pumping the arm that wasn't still wrapped around me in the air. I grinned savagely, ready for the other man´s blood to spill like my brother´s had. 

Cabaji began to sweat. ¨So...this is Roronoa Zoro? You think it's wise to mock me?¨

¨I am to become the world's greatest swordsman,¨ Zoro’s deep voice rang out across the area. ¨I can't lose even once to anyone who calls himself a swordsman. If I lose to someone like you,¨ he scoffed, ¨well I might as well just die right now.¨ 

¨Do it Zoro!¨ Luffy yelled at the same time that I shouted, ¨Kick his ass, Brother!¨

¨I can´t go along with this.¨ Nami turned on her heels then, arms crossing over chest. ¨You pirates can injure or kill yourselves all you want. It doesn't matter to me whether you win or lose. I´m going to use this chance to swipe their treasure and get outta here.¨

I glanced over at the girl very briefly, rolling my eyes. I didn't really give a shit what princess over there decided to do with her time. She´d done nothing but irritate me at this point anyway. ¨Let's team up again if we ever get the chance. Good luck with the fight!¨ she finished, dashing off into the alleyway. 

¨Eh?!¨ Luffy retorted, but made no effort to chase after the thief. ¨Good riddance,¨ I shrugged. ¨Taste my ultimate acrobat move!!¨ Cabaji suddenly shouted, redirecting my attention to the fight. He held out handfuls of spinning tops. Where do you suppose he keeps those?

He hurled them at my brother shouting, ¨Acrobat Technique: Dance of 100 kamikaze tops!¨ Zoro sliced all of the spinning tops into minicule pieces, however Cabaji wasn't quite finished. ¨Acrobat Technique: Hike in the Mountains!¨ The acrobat cycled up the side of a building, angling in at a perfect 90 degrees from the ground. 

When he reached the top of the building, he performed a back flip so he was directly over the green haired swordsman, his blade pointed directly over Zoro's face. ¨Acrobat Technique: Firework in the Cool Summer Breeze.¨

¨Woah, he's high,¨ Luffy marveled. ¨Tch. This guy has the stupidest attack names,¨ I told Luffy, and then shouted louder, this time to the acrobat. ¨YOUR ATTACK NAMES ARE DUMB!!!¨

Cabaji glared down at me from his position. ¨SHUT YOUR MOUTH, WENCH!¨ He plummeted towards Zoro then, blade ready for blood. ¨Sting of the unicycle!¨

¨Ground-hugging Chop-chop Cannon!¨ a voice cried out behind me. I whipped around only to see Buggy pointing his palm towards Zoro´s back. His hand split from his arm and sailed towards my brother. ¨Cabaji! I´ll hold Zoro down. Finish him off!¨

Two things happened at once. 

¨Captain,¨ I alerted Luffy who turned to see what was happening. As Luffy reached out immediately, stomping on the back of Buggy´s hand just as it was about to fly past us, I took one of my daggers hidden under my shirt, launching it towards the clown. 

¨AHHHH!¨ Blood flew. Buggy screamed out in pain from Luffy's foot crunching the bones of his hand, and my dagger impaling itself in his left shoulder. Buggy clutched at the weapon sticking out of him, deadly intent in his eyes. 

Meanwhile, I looked over at my brother to see that he had jumped out of the way to avoid Cabaji´s blade. He collapsed on the ground, panting heavily. He was covered in sweat and there was a steady flow of blood coming out from his side. He propped his arm against his knee, gritting his teeth. 

¨Stay out of Zoro's fight,¨ Luffy ordered the clown, back towards the swordsman. His tone was dark but his face had a giant grin stretching across it, warning the clown to make another move. 

¨Enough..I'm tired..¨ Zoro said, and Cabaji laughed. I studied my brother closely, confused at his words for a second, before a small smile graced my face. This fight was far from over, and Buggy´s lackey was a fool for underestimating my brother. 

¨Finally given up have you?¨ the man sneered. ¨Though I must say, I'm impressed you could fight with such injuries.¨

¨I meant..¨ Zoro started, standing to his full height. ¨I´m tired of your shitty ass aerobatics. You´re a shit swordsman and a joke of an acrobat.¨ 

I burst into laughter, not giving a shit when the man turned to me, glare sharp enough to kill. ¨How dare you??! How dare any of you?!¨ He readied his blade. ¨Let's see how terrible of a swordsman I am when your blood is dripping from my sword. DIE!¨

Cabaji flew forward on his unicycle with his sword pointed forward. Zoro stood ready, white katana in his mouth and a katana in each hand. ¨Oni...¨ he began, and I leaned forward, excited. My brother moved with such speed that I lost sight of him for a second, but I could still feel his energy, strong and unwavering. 

Zoro disappeared into thin air, and then just as suddenly, reappeared again behind Cabaji. His blades out behind him and a knee on the ground. ¨Giri!!¨

Blood burst from Cabaji like a water sprout. The black haired man fell to the ground with a weak gasp, and did not get up again. ¨CABAJI!!¨ Buggy yelled, his eyes almost bouncing out of his face at the sight of his henchman´s defeat. 

¨We...the Buggy Pirates..beaten by mere sneak thieves?¨ Cabaji gasped out, and I smirked. ¨We´re not sneak thieves...¨ Zoro yelled out, breathless. He sheathed his precious weapons, slowly sinking to the ground. ¨We´re pirates!¨

I turned to Buggy then, and the clown stared. I knew what he was seeing. My eyes had darkened, just the pupil though. The irises around my eyes were bright white, making my eyes glow. 

“Hey Buggy…” I started, and my grin widened when he flinched. 

“You’re next, bitch.”


	12. Enter the Sniper

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Here comes Usopp! I skipped over the Gaimon thing, but I might do some mini arcs in the future. I just find that one to be kinda boring *shrugs*
> 
> Enjoy!
> 
> edited February 22, 2021
> 
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

30 minutes later, the battle was won. Luffy severely kicked Buggy’s ass. My brother had finally woken up after his little recovery nap. Naomi had made it back much to my dismay, and we had gotten a map to the Grand Line, and apparently a new navigator.

“I lost too much damn blood,” Zoro moaned, holding his head. “Ya think?” I grunted, readjusting my hold on him. “We should go help the mayor,” the orange haired girl suggested. “He’s still sleeping ya know?”

“You mean knocked out?” I said drily, looking at Luffy. “Oh yeah,” Straw Hat chuckled, helping me heave my brother off of the ground. “We gotta go wake up the old mayor guy now.” We slowly began hobbling our way towards the mayor. However, before we could get to him, a group of villagers with weapons in their hands appeared on the street. They were being led by a guy with green hair that was tied into a low ponytail. 

“He’s got green hair,” I breathed out to Zoro. “You think he’s a long lost brother?” Luffy chuckled at that, and Zoro just sighed in exasperation, not even having the energy to deal with me. “You there,” the other green haired man started. 

“Who are you?” Luffy questioned. “We live in this town,” he answered. “Did the pirates have a falling out or something? If you know anything, tell us.” “They’re just citizens,” thief girl breathed out, sighing with relief.   
Suddenly someone from the crowd gasped. “Is that the mayor?!” they shouted, sounding shocked. “What happened to him?!” “He’s out cold!” someone else shrieked. 

“Our captain knocked him out!” I responded immediately, a giant grin on my face. “Aela!!” Brother shouted. “Idiot!” I heard behind me, and grunted when the girl smacked the back of my head. Luffy merely laughed though, and put his arms behind his head. “Shishishishi, that’s right,” he confirmed, nodding. 

“Luffy!” Nami shouted, distressed. “You should’ve waited for the Mayor to wake up and explain it to them--” I looked up when a shadow cast itself over the four of us. My brother straightened up from where he’d been slumped on me, and I positioned myself in a position of defence. I mentally prepared myself to run. The townspeople in front of us clutched their weapons tightly to their chests. “Don’t give us your damn excuses,” the green haired leader snarled. “Who the hell are you? Are you one of those pirates?”

“Yep, that’s us,” Luffy confirmed, blunt as always. “Just as we thought!” the townspeople roared, and I jumped when Brother threw his head back, laughing loudly. “You idiots!!!” Nami seethed, and I giggled. This was going to be interesting. “But it’s the truth,” Luffy said, confused at her anger. 

“Pirates! How dare you terrorize our town!” the people shouted. “Don’t think we’ll show you mercy just because you’re kids!!” “I mean...doesn’t that make you the bad guys then?” I muttered quietly. Just then, Luffy pivoted himself around towards Zoro and I. “Captain?” 

“What now?” Zoro asked. “Doesn’t look like they’re willing to hear us out.” “I think it’s time we..” Luffy started, and slung Zoro’s arm over his shoulder, taking the weight off of me completely. I couldn’t even be insulted. I knew I looked like shit and I was in no shape to help my brother and myself. 

“RUN!” Luffy shouted, and run we did. We shot off behind the rubber boy and swordsman. We bolted for the docks and left the townspeople and the sleeping Mayor in the dust. I looked behind for a second and giggled at the citizens shaking their weapons at us. 

“How can you possibly be laughing?” Nami demanded. “Everything turned out okay,” I shrugged and she looked at me, surprised. “It’s not a bad thing that they’re mad at us. They’re willing to protect their town and their mayor. When the old man wakes up he’s gonna be so happy,” I laughed again, happy everything had gone so well. 

We got to the dock with the help of a now patched up Chou-Chou, who I was sure to give a good petting to. “Bye girl!!” I exclaimed, giving her head a rough pet. She licked my hand and I giggled. She stood in front of us then, guarding the street and not allowing any of the people to pass.

“Who the hell are those guys?” I questioned. When we got back to our boat, I was surprised to learn that the boat that had Buggy’s jolly roger and was tied up next to ours, belonged to our supposed new navigator. She had stolen it from three pirates that Zoro had apparently picked up on the way over. 

“Is this your boat?” Luffy asked Nami. “It’s so cool! I envy you!” “I don’t think so..” Nami answered sheepishly. “I stole it from a bunch of stupid pirates…” 

The three stupid pirates she spoke of were lying in wait to attack Nami, but once they spotted Zoro, they yelled and ran off to find their captain. “Nobodies,” Zoro scoffed, and I nodded. Seemed like it. The four of us quickly climbed into our respective boats since there wasn’t enough room for the four of us on one boat. 

“We’ll eventually need to get a proper ship ya know,” Nami started, and for once I agreed with the sea witch. “The grand line is crawling with powerful people with powerful ships. We’re no match for them like this.”

“The sea witch is right Captain,” I nodded. “WHAT’D YOU CALL ME, BRAT?!!” Nami shouted at me with shark teeth, and I cringed away, hiding behind Brother. “We need more people too,” Luffy began, ignoring our antics. “A cook..and a musician!” “Music?” I exclaimed happily and Zoro laughed. “A musician? This guy…”

“What? Pirates sing, don’t they?” Straw Hat said defensively. “Course they do!” I backed him up, and he grinned at me. “We also need a doctor,” I added on, and the orange girl looked at me, impressed. She opened her mouth to praise me. “And a cat,” I finished, folding my arms together and nodding decisively. “WHAT??” she shouted, and fell anime style.

“You’re still on the cat thing?” Zoro groaned. “What’s wrong with liking cats Zoro-nii?” I whined. “Whatever,” Nami huffed, rolling out the map. “There’s an island to the south of here we can go to. If we continue in this direction, we’ll hit it by morning. It would be best if we try to get a real ship there. Then once we do that, you guys can discuss getting a cook or doctor or cat for your group.”

“Cat!” I shouted at the same time Luffy yelled, “Musician!” 

Zoro and Nami sighed. 

***************************************************************************************************

We made it to the new island just as the sun rose the next morning. Luffy and Zoro dragged each of the boats on to the sand. I stumbled off of the boat, my foot catching on nothing but air, and face planted into the sand. I groaned and rolled over spitting out sand, glaring at Luffy when he laughed at me. “She needs a little time to wake up in the morning,” Zoro explained when Nami shot me a look. She merely rolled her eyes and delicately stepped on to shore, making me pout in jealousy. 

Zoro yawned loudly, stretching his arms over his head. “Finally on dry land again…” Luffy ran onto the land a little more and began looking around excitedly. The shores were surrounded by rocky cliffs with grass and trees growing at the top of it. There was a steep slope that was carved through the cliffs that led inland. “Is there a village here?” Luffy asked, pointing to a trail that was just up the slope. 

“Uh huh,” I nodded, doing my morning stretches. “Not very big though. I don’t feel that many signatures.” 

“She’s right,” Nami confirmed, looking at me strangely. “Duh,” I teased her, giving her a dumb grin when she growled at me.

“Let’s go exploring!” I suggested, smiling. Nothing like adventure to wake me up in the morning. “Yeah!” Luffy seconded me. His nose twitched and I sweat dropped as he started to drool. “Town means food. Food means meat. Meat. Meat. Meat.”

“I don’t suppose there’s a chance you’re a vegetarian then huh, Loof?” I giggled, and he looked over at me with a “huh?” 

“I’m allergic to squash,” he said with a deadpan expression. “What?!” I fell over, anime style. 

Just then, Zoro took two steps forward with his hand on his sword. “Get up Aela,” he shot down at me. “There’s someone here.” I shot up and sensed around. He was right. There was someone here. Multiple people actually. I needed to stop letting my guard down so easily. 

“Really?” Luffy yelled out, and I winced. I didn’t really expect him to be quiet I guess. The captain whipped his head around all directions looking for the threat. “Where? Where? Where?”

I felt the energy around us shift suddenly. “Look out!” I warned everyone, grabbing the back of my captain’s shirt and yanking him back just in time to miss several pellet-like objects striking the ground at his feet. 

I swore when something cut into my arm, and quickly shot my hand out in front of me. A white shield manifested itself in front of the four of us, and I ignored the annoying flicks of pain as the debris hit my shield. 

“Woah,” Nami breathed out, slowly reaching to touch the shield. “This is impressive, twerp,” she admitted, lightly poking the shield. “I know,” I smirked, cockily, and an angry tick appeared on her forehead. “Say thank you!” she shouted. 

The leaves along the edges of the cliff rustled violently. A long row of black pirate flags were raised from the bushes. They waved in the wind over our heads. “Eh?” Luffy questioned. “SO COOL!” “This isn’t the time to be impressed, idiot!” Nami yelled, running behind Zoro. 

“Hahaahahaha!!!” A loud laugh echoed towards us from behind the bushes and a boy stepped forward in front of the pirate flag in the center of the row. He was a bit on the scrawny side with curly black hair, large round eyes, thick lips and a medium tan. He wore a pale yellow bandana over his forehead, brown overalls, tan colored boots and a messenger back around his shoulder. A white sash was wrapped around his waist, much like the one Zoro and Aela wore, and a blue and white striped arm band covered his lower left arm. 

He folded his arms over his chest and stuck his unusually long nose in the air. “I am Usopp, leader of the great pirates who reign over the village! You stand before a living legend, the most revered pirate who ever lived! People praise me...then they praise me more as ‘Captaaaaaaiiinnnnn Usopp!”

No one spoke. We simply stared at ‘Captain Usopp.’ “Why’s your nose so big?!” I shouted out, irritated at this guy’s nerve. “HOW DARE YOU???” he shouted, pivoting towards me. “I am the great Captain Usopp and you should fear me little girl!” 

“The only thing I’m scared of is your shitty lying skills!!” I shouted back, allowing my shield to fall. This guy was a wimp. “Aela, hush,” Zoro said, throwing me a look. “We don’t know what this guy is about yet, and you shouldn’t antagonize a possible enemy.” 

“Zoro-nii, he’s clearly lying,” I pouted up at him. “I know he is, but you still shouldn’t be so quick to lower your guard,” he scolded, and I wilted. “Yes, Brother,” I sighed. “If you’re thinking of attacking this village,” Long Nose continued, “then forget it! My 80 million subordinates won’t sit by quietly!” Usopp threw his arms out dramatically to end his declaration. 

He’s not even trying now, I sweat dropped. There’s no way anyone would believe this guy….

“AWWWESOOOOME!” I jumped when my captain shouted at the top of his lungs, and sighed when I saw that the rubber boy had stars in his eyes. “Luffy no…” I said quietly, shaking my head. “You’re lying,” Nami proclaimed, stepping out from behind Zoro. Usopp’s hands flew to the top of his yellow bandana tied hair. 

“Yikes! She saw through it!” he shrieked. “See? You admitted it,” the orange hair girl smirked. Usopp started to wriggle with panic and shame. “Nooooo, I admitted it to herrr,” he cried in despair. “He was lying??!” Luffy said sadly and looked over at me for confirmation. “‘Fraid so, Cap’n,” I nodded sagely, and giggled when he pouted at me. 

“Okay, fine,” Usopp huffed. The boy quickly regained his composure with a thump to his chin and a smirk on his lips. “80 million may have been a slight exaggeration..” “Slight?” I echoed. He continued, “BUT I do have great men under my command!” On cue, the flags started moving up and down along the cliffs. 

“BULLSHIT!” I shouted out, done with this guy’s lying already. “I’m guessing you’ve got 3 guys,” Nami backed up my statement, hands on her hips. Three heads popped out from under the bushes followed by three pairs of hands, clutching the ends of 6 pirate flags. The flags had strings tied around the poles, connecting them to the other flags around the cliffs. I raised my eyebrow at the three children, and winced when they began shouting loudly. “AHHHH! She saw through it!!”

“That was actually really smart,” I whispered to Zoro, and he shrugged in indifference. He wasn’t impressed by sneakiness. He was more of a “face your fears or die trying,” kinda guy.

I, however, secretly wanted to be a ninja. 

“Oi!!!” Usopp shouted out to his ‘men’ when they dropped their flags and fled from the scene. “Don’t run away!” I was actually starting to feel a little sorry for this guy. Nami bent down then and picked up a bit of the shrapnel that was thrown at us. She picked it up and examined it, and smiled when she discovered it was a pachinko ball. “I’ve never heard of pirates using slingshots before.”

“Anything can be turned into a weapon when used correctly,” Zoro said and I nodded seriously. “Even fish,” I added on, and Nami looked at me with a pained expression. “I don’t get you,” she sighed. Luffy put his hands on his hips and laughed loudly. “You’re pretty funny!” he called out to the dark haired boy. 

“Hey you!” he shouted back. “Don’t insult me! I’m a very proud man!” He pulled out a green slingshot, fitting a new pachinko ball in its leather pad. He pulled the sling back and aimed it at Luffy’s head. “This is your last warning, or you’ll see why they call me ‘Proud Usopp’ and not ‘Pushover Usopp.’ Is that clear?” 

“You sure they don’t call you ‘Dumbass Usopp’?” I countered back, and the boy quickly pivoted the slingshot towards me instead. “I’ve had enough of you,” he growled. I grinned at him cheekily and stepped forward, but stopped when Luffy put his hand on my shoulder, silently telling me to step back. I looked over at my captain in surprise. Luffy had lost his humor at the sight of the readied weapon. His face turned solemn and he lowered his hat over his eyes. 

“My slingshot skills are far greater than your average pistol!” Usopp declared. 

“Now that you’ve drawn your pistol,” Luffy started, hand still over his hat, “Put your life on the line.” I studied my captain for a second, and then smirked when I understood what he was doing. As one, Zoro and I stepped beside Luffy, flanking each side of him. Zoro lifted his white katana out of its scabbard, while I simply placed my hands in my pocket, sending a dark smirk towards the boy. 

Usopp was starting to look nervous. To his credit, he kept his aim, though sweat trickled from his forehead and his hand began to waver. “Huh?” Usopp gasped. “I’m saying,” Luffy continued, “that those aren’t for threatening people.” He lowered his hand but kept his head bowed so that the only thing Usopp could see was his confident smirk.

Zoro matched his facial expression of his captain and pushed his white-hilted katana just slightly out of its scabbard with his thumb. “What you’re looking at now are real pirates.”

“Consider your next move very carefully, little boy,” I finished, retaliating for his insult towards me earlier. 

I watched as Usopp gulped, his legs starting to shake. His arms wobbled and his hands became sweaty, losing his grip on his weapon. The slingshot began jerking up and down, and I could practically see the wheels in his mind turning as he decided his next move. His fingers slowly loosened on the leather pad. The pachinko ball fell limply on to the ground at Usopp’s feet and he sank to his knees. “R-real pirates definitely have way more punch in their words...Awesome..”

Luffy tilted his head back and grinned. He shared a look with Zoro and I, and I giggled at him, fully relaxing my stance. I threw my arms behind my head and smiled broadly at Captain. Zoro and Luffy shared a laugh together. 

“Shishishishishi. I borrowed those lines y’know,” Luffy grinned at the boy. “From a pirate that I respect called Shanks!” “Sh-Shanks?!” Usopp stuttered out. “You know ‘Red-haired Shanks, the pirate?!” 

Luffy nodded. “Yep! Your dad’s Yasopp, right?” “WHAT?” the boy gasped out in surprise. Suddenly, he fell forward and over the cliff. I winced as he tumbled down to the sand and landed right by my feet. “Y-yes...Yasopp is my father. How do you know that?” “I’ll tell you…” Luffy said, kneeling down to be eye level with Usopp. His grin widened. “...while we eat.” 

Usopp blinked up at us, studying the four pirates in front of him. “Wait..so you’re not here to destroy the village?” “No stupid, we’re here to eat!” I laughed, bending down and grasping Usopp’s arm, helping him up. 

“So can we have food Long Nose?” I asked eagerly, eyes lit up at the possibility of food. 

“Don’t call me that, jerk!” 

**************************************************************************************************  
Usopp brought us into town, and we discovered that Nami and I were correct about the size. It was a very small town, and the restaurant we were eating at didn’t even have a name. There was just a sign out front that said, “Food.” 

When we entered the restaurant, the five of us took a table. Zoro and I sat on one side, Luffy and Nami on the other, Usopp pulled up on the end. We ordered quickly and ate even faster. The four pirates, even Nami, dug into our food like we hadn’t eaten in months. Usopp grinned. “Good,right?”

“Yefff,” Luffy agreed with a mouthful of meat and ham hock in his hands. “Ifs awfesome,” I seconded, and grunted when Zoro kicked my shin. “Don’t talk with your mouth full.” “Boro-biiiiiiii,” I pouted, but quickly swallowed when his leg lifted to kick me again. “So how did you know who my old man was?” Usopp questioned, raising an eyebrow at Zoro and I. 

Luffy gulped down the chunk of food and wiped the grease off of his mouth with the back of his hand. “I met him when I was a kid. Shanks used to visit my village.” “So my old man’s on Shank’s ship?” Usopp said excitedly, sitting up straight. “Yep! You two look so similar. I knew it was you when I first saw you,” Luffy grinned. Usopp grinned broadly at that, and I smiled at him. Maybe Long Nose wasn’t so bad. 

“My old man’s on such an awesome ship?” he asked, mainly to himself. “I don’t know about now,” Luffy said, continuing to eat. “But I bet he’s still with him. After all, your dad was a good sharpshooter. He once told me that he could shoot an ant right in between the eyes.” “That’s so awesome!!” I shouted, stars in my eyes. He sounded like a ninja!!

“Woah! My old man could do that?” Usopp gasped as he leaned closer to Luffy. “What else did he tell you? What else?” 

“Yeah what else?” I echoed, just as excited. Zoro chuckled at me, but I ignored him. “Usopp,” Luffy grinned, picking up an apple. “I heard so much about you that it made my ears sore. He was a heck of a sharpshooter. I’d keep him on my crew.” He gazed at the apple and his eyes grew distant as though he were remembering a fond memory. Sending a smile to Usopp he continued, “Yasopp was a great pirate, but he talked about you a helluva lot more than his own adventures.” 

I pouted at that. I wanted to know more about the ninja. Usopp leaned back in his seat and stared at the ceiling in wonder. “I’m so proud of my old man, who leapt onto these possibly endless seas..to live with his life on the line…” 

Nami set down her cup of water and grinned at the boy. “This makes things easier then if you two are friends! Usopp, do you know anyone in the village who can supply us with a big ship?” Usopp sighed and pointed out the window. “As you can see, this is just a tiny village. I’m sorry, but we can’t live up to your hopes.” 

“On the top of the hill…” Zoro said, and chugged down the last bit of his ale. “There was a huge mansion.” I felt Usopp tense beside me and looked at him curiously. “Think you could ask them to help us pay for one?” Nami asked, and I cringed at the forwardness. I was always weird about money. 

“You can’t go there,” Usopp said sternly, and my eyebrows rose in surprise at the new tone to his voice. “What’s wrong?” I asked him, and he glanced at me before quickly looking away. “The owner of that mansion is a young girl, and she’s bedridden.” 

“How did she become the owner of a mansion?” Nami pondered. Before Usopp could answer, Luffy shouted out, “More meat, please!” “And more beer!” Zoro added. 

“Are you guys even listening?!” Usopp snapped. “Probably not,” I answered at the same time Nami ordered, “Just ignore them! Keep going.” Usopp let out a sigh of frustration but continued, “About a year ago, both of the girl’s parents got sick and died. They left her with a huge inheritance, along with a mansion and a dozen servants.” He leaned back and crossed his arms behind his head. “She’s rich and lives in luxury,” he murmured, staring up at the ceiling in contemplation, “but nobody is more unfortunate than her.” 

‘Forget it!” Orange haired girl proclaimed, and everyone shot a surprised look at the normally greedy teenager. “We’re not gonna find a ship here. Let’s go to another town.” 

“Whatever,” Luffy shrugged, seeming to agree with the girl. “I have a belly full of meat, and we can spare the time, so let’s grab some supplies and go!” I guess we were going to try and find a bigger town to acquire our ship. 

“By the way…” Usopp cut in, “You said you were looking for a crewman..” “Yup, that’s right,” Luffy confirmed. I sat up, interested. Maybe Long Nose knew someone? 

“I’m your man!” he announced then, grinning at us with confidence. “I’ll be your captain!” The response was unanimous all around. 

“Captain?!”

“No thanks.” 

“Shut up!” 

“I don’t wanna be on Pinnochio’s crew!” 

“Don’t you wanna think it over?!” Usopp gasped, but the crew’s decision was sound. Realizing this, Usopp gave up. “Fine. I guess it’s time for me to go, anyway.” The curly haired boy picked up his bag and waved at the pirates as he headed for the door. “Maybe I’ll see you guys before you leave. You guys stay. Eat and drink all you want alright? Later!” And with that, Long Nose was gone. 

It was quiet for a bit, the sounds of Luffy stuffing his face and Zoro gulping down his ale. I pushed my carrots around silently, an idea popping into my head. Usopp didn’t say that she wouldn’t give us a ship. I think we’re being too hasty with giving up on this island…

“Hmph,” I nodded to myself then, decision made. “I’ve decided,” I announced out loud to the crew. The three pirates looked at me, Luffy in mid chew, meat hanging out of his mouth, Zoro pouring grog down his throat, brown eye peering over at me questioningly, and Nami’s elbow propped on the table, head resting on her closed fist. “It’s time to activate ninja mode!”

Zoro swallowed his alcohol and sighed, putting a hand on his forehead wearily. Nami and Luffy merely looked at me, Luffy continuing to chew. I stood up with a grin. “Someone needs to go investigate that mansion, and I’m just the girl to do it!” “Awwight!” Luffy shouted, punching the air in excitement, mouth still full so words coming out muffled. 

“I’d try to stop you,” Nami sighed, “but it’s actually not a bad idea. Just be sure to not give yourself away.” “Don’t worry Naomi!! My ninja mode is foolproof!” I proclaimed proudly. 

“We’ll see…” she trailed off drily, not even bothering to correct me on her name. “Be careful, brat,” Zoro grunted towards me, and I patted his head in confirmation. “I’ll meet you guys later!” I waved goodbye at them, stepping outside the restaurant. “Don’t get lost!” Zoro shouted at me right as the door shut. I looked around the town, looking for my target, grinning when I found it. 

Ninja mode activated, I thought to myself, and made my way towards the mansion on the hill.


	13. Hypnotist

Okay, so the truth was. I was a shitty ninja. Like really shitty. I discovered very quickly that I didn’t have the patience for sneaking around. I made it inside of the mansion perimeters, easily jumping over the high fence surrounding the estate. There really wasn’t any way of sneaking into the mansion without completely giving myself away. I was inside of the courtyard area now and looked around, scoping the area. Finally, I spotted a window, with a conveniently placed tree planted beside it. 

“Ninjas break into houses right?” I asked myself quietly, then nodded in confirmation. 

“Ninjas are open to all possibilities,” I snickered, and began climbing the tree right next to the window. I made it to the top and jerked in surprise when I realized that the window was not unoccupied. There was a girl sitting on a bed beside the open window, reading. I debated my next move, and realized there was really only one thing I could do; I grimaced. Zoro was not gonna be happy with me. I saw no other choice though. 

I reached over and knocked on the window. The girl jerked and dropped her book, quickly looking over at me. I grinned at her sheepishly. I definitely look like a freak right now. 

The window was quickly pulled up, the girl poking her head out. She had shoulder length blonde hair, and a super pale complexion. The girl looked like she’d never stepped foot into the sun. “Who are you?’ she said, eyebrows high in suspicion. “What do you want?”

I held out my hands complacently, trying to show her I was innocent. “I just wanna talk. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” I paused then, and took a chance. “I’m friends with Usopp.” “Usopp?” she breathed, and her face smoothed out. I silently breathed a sigh of relief. Don’t know what I was gonna do if that didn’t work. 

“Yep. I’m new in town and was just checking out the area. Usopp told me who lived at this mansion, and I just wanted to introduce myself.” What a shit story. 

“I’m Aela,” I introduced, and she smiled at me. “Hello. My name is Kaya.” “That’s such a pretty name,” I said truthfully and gave her a huge friendly smile. She giggled at me, and so began our conversation. 

Fifteen minutes later

“....and then...he shows up and he’s all ‘Aela, where’s my shorts?!!” Kaya burst into laughter and I joined her, banging on the tree branch in front of me. Kaya was clutching her stomach, laughing so hard tears streamed down her cheeks. The two of us had become fast friends, and I quickly dove into telling her embarrassing stories about Zoro. “How could you?” she questioned me, but she had a giant smile on her face. “How could I not?!” I shot back, and we laughed loudly with each other again. 

“Aela?” I heard then, and quickly looked down. Standing at the base of the tree was Usopp. “Hey buddy!” I shouted down, and seconds later he was climbing the tree. “What are you doing here?” he questioned accusingly, and I smiled at him sheepishly, scooting over to make room for him on the branch. “I was just saying hello to Kaya here. You told me so much about her, and I just had to introduce myself.” I looked into his eyes when I spoke. He stared at me for a few seconds longer. “...Right,” he nodded, turning towards Kaya. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, Usopp,” she said, smiling softly at him. At her smile, Usopp’s cheeks heated up, and I grinned at him cheekily. Looks like Long Nose has a little crush on my new friend here. We sat there almost awkwardly for a moment, before Usopp spoke. “Should I finish my story of how I, the Great Pirate Captain Usopp, faced off 300 men alone?” “I would love that!” Kaya smiled, and Usopp continued his tale. 

I listened in awe as Usopp weaved his story. It was full of action and imagery, and he lowered and raised his voice at the perfect moments. I, along with Kaya, was enraptured in the story, so much so that when a voice yelled at us, I jumped and almost fell off the tree branch. Usopp caught me and pulled me back up, and I smiled at him in thanks. 

“Yo!” Luffy shouted and I laughed. “Captain! Brother!” I greeted, “and...kids?” I added, noticing the new additions. “What happened to ninja mode, Aela?” Zoro questioned me, and I sheepishly giggled, an arm going behind me to rub my head. “Ninja mode?” Usopp questioned, and I cleared my throat. “This is Kaya!” I cut in quickly, gesturing towards the surprised girl. “She’s the mistress of this mansion.” 

“Yo!” Luffy repeated, greeting the girl in his Luffy way. “They heard of my reputation from afar,” Usopp threw his arm over my shoulder, and I side eyed him. “They came to seek me out. They’re the newest members of my crew!” 

“Yeah!” Luffy agreed, and I looked down at the teenager, my eyebrows rising in surprise. “Wait..hey that’s not right!” the dark haired captain quickly corrected, and I snorted. “I wanted to ask you a question,” he continued, directing his question to Kaya, and the girl’s eyes grew big. 

“Oh?” she blinked her dark eyes curiously. “Yep,” he confirmed, nodding. “We were wondering if you had a ship you could give us.” I squirmed in discomfort at the blunt question. “Don’t just ask her like that!” Nami yelled, smacking Luffy. The girl opened her mouth to answer, but all of a sudden, I felt a new presence join us, and seconds later, a stern voice cut into the conversation. 

“What is the meaning of this?!” The man that spoke had a very deep voice. He had black, greased back hair that shone in the sunlight. He wore spectacles on his face that rested towards the middle of his nose. He was as tall as Zoro, but with a very rigid posture. He wore a butler’s uniform, black suit with golden markings on each side of the blazer. 

“This guy stands like he has a stick up his ass,” I muttered to Usopp. He glanced over at me but didn’t laugh. If anything he tensed up even more. 

“We’re just visiting Miss Kaya here,” I called down to him, and he turned his head up towards the branch Usopp and I were sitting on, studying me. “I’m sorry, I don’t believe I’ve met any of you,” he said slowly, and I wanted to point out that he didn’t sound very sorry at all. “We’re friends of Usopp’s,” I continued. “Usopp?” the man sniffed in disdain. “That boy is the town liar. It’s best not to trust him.” 

“What?!” Usopp yelled, affronted, but the butler continued, undeterred, “I do not appreciate you breaking in here without permission!” I tilted my head at the man. What a douche. 

“Who is this guy?” Luffy asked suddenly. “Klahadore..” Kaya breathed, smiling nervously at the tense man. “You see,” she began explaining, “these people are -” The man raised a hand to silence her, and the young girl’s voice cut off. “Save your excuses for later.” My nose flared at his words. Who the hell does this guy think he is?

“You must all immediately leave the premises. Or do you have some business here?” “We need a ship!” Luffy explained, hopeful. “I can’t help you,” butler man shot down Luffy’s request, making the rubber man slump over in disappointment. Zoro patted his back half-assedly in support. 

“You,” the older man spat out then, and I directed my attention to him. “The guards have reported seeing you around the estate. Do you have any business being here?” 

“Um, yes I do!” Usopp started, “A legendary mole entered this area, and I’m trying to capture him!” I sweat dropped at the dumb lie. That’s all he could come up with? Butler man snorted at the lie, lowering his head to glare at Usopp over the rim of his glasses. “You’ve a gift for lying, I see.” He directed his next statement to the rest of us then. “I would advise you and your friends to not associate yourself with that boy. He is nothing but the son of a filthy pirate. Stay away from Mistress Kaya,” he ordered, voice dark and cold. 

The air became tense at the poisonous words. Usopp was gripping the tree branch tightly, his hand turning white. He had a dark expression on his face. I looked down and noticed that my captain was also not taking this sort of talk lightly. “Filthy?” Usopp whispered, voice raspy. 

The butler, Klahadore, adjusted his spectacles. “You and Mistress are from two different worlds. Is it money you’re after? How much?” 

“You’ve gone too far, Klahadore!” Kaya screamed suddenly, and I looked at the girl, impressed. For a sickly girl, she could yell. “You owe Usopp an apology!” 

Klahadore merely glanced at Kaya dismissively. “Mistress Kaya, why should I apologize to this trash? I only speak the truth.” He turned to face Usopp, pushing his glasses up with the hell of his hand. “I will say that I feel sorry for you, however. You must truly hate your great idiot of a father for abandoning his family and village because of his lust for treasure.”

I sucked in a breath as the energy surrounding Usopp spiked. He was about to -

“Don’t you dare!” Usopp roared, and I gasped again as he leapt off the branch towards Klahadore, tackling him to the ground. He threw back his arm, launching his fist towards the butler. “Don’t you dare insult my father!” The butler’s head fell back at the force of the punch, Kaya and the three boys screaming in shock. I guess they’ve never seen Usopp violent before. I didn’t blame the boy though. Hell, I wanted to punch the guy and this had nothing to do with me. 

“Captain!” the three boys from before cried out in alarm towards Usopp. I jumped down next to my brother, feeling more confident with both feet on the ground. Usopp got to his feet and glared at the dark haired man, who shakily got up and adjusted his spectacles. “You see?” he stuttered out, and I narrowed my eyes at the obvious act. “You immediately resort to violence! Like father, like son!”

“SHUT UP!” Usopp roared. “I’m proud that my father is a pirate! I’m proud that he’s a brave warrior of the sea! You’re right. I am an exaggerator but I’ll never lie about my pride to be related by blood to a pirate. I’m the son of a pirate!” The dark haired teenager’s voice rang out loud and proud, and it shook with strong emotion. 

“That’s quite a twisted way of putting things,” the butler sniffed haughtily. He dusted off his suit and pants. “You’re the undeniable proof of his savage blood. You run around spouting lies and act violent whenever you’re angry. And to top it off, you cozy up to the lady of the house so you can get her fortune.”  
“Hey!” I shouted, stepping forward. That was a low accusation. “What?” Usopp cried. “I only--” “The fact that your father is a pirate is proof in and of itself that you’d hatch such a scheme!” Klahadore shouted, and I grit my teeth. This guy was really starting to piss me off. 

Usopp lunged forward and grabbed Klahadore by the collar, pulling his fist back. “Damn it! You still won’t let up?” “Please stop, Usopp-san!” Kaya suddenly cried out. Usopp glanced at Kaya, fist stopping in mid-air. If I didn’t know that she was sick before, I did now. Her complexion was even paler than before; she was sweating and holding her head up with her hand like it had suddenly become too heavy. “Klahadore isn’t a bad person! He’s just trying too hard to do what’s best for me!” 

Bullshit, I thought to myself, but one sharp look from my brother kept me from saying my thoughts aloud. Usopp’s jaw tensed but his grip slowly loosened from the butler’s shirt. Klahadore noticed this and slapped Usopp’s hand away. “Leave this place,” he said sternly. “Never come to this mansion again.” Kaya let out a shaky breath at this, sounding as though she were close to tears. 

“Yeah,” Usopp agreed, letting his hand drop to his side. “No need to tell me. I’’ll never come back here again.” He sent one last look up to Kaya, his face dark and closed off. He then stormed off past the butler towards the perimeter of the mansion, hands stuffed deep within his pockets. His three followers ran up behind him. “Our captain is not that kind of guy!” they shouted. “Yeah! Stupid head!” 

“STUPID HEAD!” Captain shouted, veins bulging from his neck, and Zoro quickly grabbed Luffy from behind so that the rubber man couldn’t charge at the butler. Klahadore glared at all of us, then. “All of you, leave at once!” I raised my eyebrow at the man, immediately looking at my Captain. I don’t follow orders from anyone else. Well, except Zoro. Sometimes. 

“We’re leaving,” Luffy said, stilling in Zoro’s grasp. I nodded and looked towards Kaya. “Goodbye, Kaya! It was nice talking with you. Feel better okay?” She just blinked at me sadly, giving me a small smile. I started walking behind my brother, and then stopped, looking back at the girl one final time. 

“Usopp is your friend right?” I questioned and she started, mouth open in surprise, before nodding firmly. “Of course.” “Hmm,” I nodded back, continuing, “He’s a good friend to you. You have the final say on who you can be friends with. No one can control you.” 

“Let’s go Aela,” Zoro said softly, and I smiled at her one final time before following my crew towards the exit. We passed by the butler, and my arm gently grazed his suit. I tensed. This guy. He had a bad aura. I resisted the urge to grab on to the back of my brother’s shirt like I used to as a child. I wasn’t a little kid anymore. 

We walked until we were at the outskirts of the village. The three boys sat down along a fence that lined the dirt road. As soon as we all got settled, I sighed, looking at my crew. “I’m sorry guys,” I said, head bowed. “I didn’t do a great job.” “Nah, you did fine,” Zoro said, plopping his hand on top of my head. “That guy was just an ass.”

“I wonder where Usopp is,” Luffy said, putting his hands behind his head. “Captain usually goes to the south shore when he’s upset,” one of the boys spoke up then. 

“Ah,” Luffy spoke up. “I’ll go find him then,” he said with a grin. He looked over at the swordsman. “Zoro?” 

“I’ll stay here with them,” the green eyed man stated with a single nod. I huffed in dislike and Nami looked back and forth between Captain and Zoro curiously. “Captain I….” I began, voicing my displeasure at his command for me to be watched over. 

Suddenly, Luffy’s hand was on my head. I looked up to see what is now referred to as ‘Luffy’s grin.’ “I know you can look after yourself,” he simply said. “Help Zoro take care of everyone okay?” My eyebrows drew together a little bit, searching his eyes for any discrepancies in his words, but I found none. A smile stretched across my face and I nodded, determined to watch over the others. 

“Shishishi,” he laughed, and his hand retreated. “We’ll meet back up later, k guys?” We watched him walk off, and then he was gone. “There’s something off with that butler guy,” Zoro-nii spoke and I rolled my eyes. “Yeah I think we all got that, brother. Dude is bat-shit crazy.” 

I walked over towards the three boys. They were sitting in a semi-circle with their backs to the fence. They had pulled out a deck of cards and one of them was starting to shuffle the deck. “Yo!” I spoke in a friendly voice. They looked up at me, smiling hesitantly. I kneeled down to be eye level with them. “My name is Roronoa Aela. You guys were at the cliffs with Usopp before, right? That was a pretty cool trick you pulled off with the flags.” 

“Thanks,” the one in the middle said shyly. “It was Usopp’s idea.” 

“He’s our Captain,” another jumped in. 

“We’re the Usopp Pirates!” 

“Yeah?” I replied with a grin. “So what happened after I left the restaurant?” I directed this question more to Nami and Zoro. 

“Well,” Nami began, huffing with annoyance. She hoisted herself up to sit on top of the fence. “These three came running into the restaurant after you left. They thought we had eaten Usopp.”

Silence. 

“.......what?” I asked, more than a little confused. I looked over at the kids then for an explanation. One of them spoke up, blushing. “It was an honest mistake, okay? Luffy’s belly was huge and Captain Usopp was gone! What were we supposed to think?”

“That we were eating at a restaurant!” Nami shouted, shark teeth. “Ohhhh, yeah I can see why you guys got confused…” I nodded to the kids as though Nami hadn’t spoken. Zoro snorted. “Idiot!” she directed at me, shaking her fist in my direction. 

“So you guys must be really close to Usopp then, huh?” 

“Yeah!” all three of them shouted, and I laughed. How sweet. I could see that they were worried about their Captain. “Hey how bout I tell you guys about the time that I sold Zoro-nii’s shorts for dessert money?” I wiggled my eyebrows. 

“You’ll do no such thing, brat!” Zoro shouted, and smacked me over the head. “I’m gonna get a concussion from you two doing that so much!!” I grunted, tears coming to my eyes as I held my head. “Well stop being stupid!!!” Brother and Nami shouted, and I whimpered. 

“They’re so mean to me boys!!!” I cried, launching myself at the closest one. I grabbed him up and hugged him in front of me like he was my human shield. He appeared startled for a moment, but then began giggling, making me smile in triumph. 

I began telling a different story to the three boys, one that wouldn’t cause me to receive bodily harm. At some point, one of the kids got up and wandered off, making Zoro look at the two remaining in question. They reassured him that he would be back. Apparently, it was quite common for him to go off by himself, then come back screaming when he spotted something that freaked him out. 

Ten minutes later, that piece of information was confirmed. “Onion’s back,” I reported absentmindedly, concentrating on the card game. My tongue stuck out and my eyes were narrowed in concentration. 

“What?” one of the kids asked. Seconds later...“AAAAAHHHHH!! BAD NEWS!!” Onion screamed, racing back towards us. I looked up in surprise at the volume of his voice. What the hell..

“A weird guy is walking backwards this way!!”

“Liar,” his two friends remarked in unison, looking at me instead of their friend, faces full of awe. I grinned at them with a close eyed smile. It was always fun to see people’s reactions to my devil fruit. Onion stopped in front of us, stomping his foot and pointing in the direction that he’d run from. “It’s the truth! Just look.” 

I concentrated for a bit, expanding my senses. I couldn’t see anything but that didn’t mean much. 

There. My eyes widened and I stood up from my seated position on the ground, going to stand beside Zoro. He’d been taking a nap, and was seated on the ground propped up under a tree. “He’s right,” I confirmed, Zoro and Nami glancing at me. Sure enough, a man came into our view, and he was indeed walking backwards. The soles of his feet slid back and forth while never leaving the ground. 

He came to a stop right in front of the kids. He turned to us, revealing wide, thin lips and heart shaped sunglasses. He had a long, cylindrical goatee which was wrapped in red and black striped fabric. “Oy!” he spoke. “Who’s calling me a weird guy? I am not weird.” 

“You’re definitely a weirdo,” I responded back, and for once, Zoro must’ve agreed with me, because he didn’t even scold me for my bluntness. “Don’t be stupid,” he responded back, “I’m just an ordinary hypnotist passing through.” The man had one hand on his hat, tilting it down, while the other rested on his stomach. It looked as though he was constantly stuck in a dance pose. 

“Hypnotist?” me and the three kids responded at the same time. The three kids had stars in their eyes, but I spat the word out in disgust. Hypnotists created fake emotions in people. They made them feel things they didn’t want to. They went into the same category as clowns in my book. 

“Show us something!” the children pleaded. “Do something!” “What?” the man growled. “Don’t be dumb! Why would I want to show my powers to a bunch of strangers?!” Seconds after he spoke though, he had his hand out with a chakram dangling from a string. 

“Alright. Watch this closely,” he said to the boys. “Wait...so you are going to do it?” Zoro asked, as he and Nami sweat dropped. I was super uneasy around this guy, and slowly walked over to stand beside the boys. If this guy tried anything funny…

“You’ll feel sleepy at the count of ‘one, two, Jango!” the hypnotist instructed as the chakram began to swing back and forth. “Alright, here we go..One..two...Jango!” 

Instantly, the boys fell onto their backs and began to snore loudly. The hypnotist himself did the same thing. “Ummm…” I said with a weak chuckle. A vein began throbbing in the back of Zoro’s head. “Oy!! What’s with this guy?” he ground out. “I don’t like him, Brother,” I spoke my feelings then, and Zoro looked up at me, studying me for a second. “It’ll be fine,” he said simply, and I wiggled my nose, but tried to relax. He hadn’t done anything...yet. 

“So what do we do now?” I said, looking at my crew members. “I’ll wake him..” Nami sighed and walked up to the man, kicking him. “Oi!! Wake up!! You’re not supposed to hypnotize yourself!”

The man stirred and then stopped. With his sunglasses over his eyes, I couldn’t tell if he had his eyes open or was still asleep. He then jerked into a sitting position, making me jump a little. “I’m up!!” he announced, angling his head to place a hand over his hat. “I’m awake!! Ah!! And I’m late!!”

He began moonwalking down the road again, posing with his chin down. The three of us silently watched him walk towards the south side of the road until he disappeared from sight. We then pivoted our eyesight to the sleeping children. Without saying anything, I headed towards the boys. I nudged my brother with my foot,, making him grunt, but he got up from his napping position. We each took a kid and woke them up...delicately of course. 

Bonk! 

Smack!

Zoro-nii and Nami smacked their kid hard on the forehead, Nami using a closed fist and Zoro with the hilt of his katana. I took a different approach of course, and began tickling the shit out of Onion. He began twitching uncontrollably, until finally, he set up with a gasp, tears running down his face. “AHAHAHAHAHAA!! STOP THAT!!” he yelled, jumping away from me, and I giggled, throwing my hands up in a sign of peace. 

“Luffy and Usopp have been gone for a long time,” Zoro murmured. After that very strange interruption, we’d gone back to waiting. I furrowed my eyebrows in agreement. I was trying to ignore how much time had passed, but it was hard to look past it now. “Captain got quite the shock today,” one of the boys spoke up. “He must’ve needed a longer time than usual to get over it.”

“AHHHHH!!!” the boy named Pepper screamed, and I jumped again. I was getting sick of the random yelling. He leapt to his feet and pointed towards the horizon. “Captain is coming!!” 

“What?” Zoro, Nami, and myself turned to look down the road and saw that Usopp was in fact running towards us, very quickly. He was kicking up a giant dust cloud in the air. “Captain!” the boys cheered. “Why isn’t Luffy with him?” Zoro questioned, and my shoulders tensed. 

“Hey, Usopp! Where’s Luffy?” Nami called out to the dark haired boy. “Wasn’t he at the shore with--Eh?!” Usopp ran straight through us without even pausing in his steps as though we weren’t even here. Just as quickly as he came, he was gone again. 

“You think he’s still angry about his dad being insulted?” Nami asked, and I tilted my head. “I don’t think so…” I trailed off. “It looked like he was panicking about something…” I turned towards my crewmembers then. “Do you..” I started, “Do you think something happened to Captain?”

“Oy!” Zoro spoke then, voice commanding. “Where is the place your captain likes to go? Show us now!” He sounded normal, but I knew brother. He was trying to remain calm. The kids huddled together in excitement. “Doesn’t this smell like an incident?” Onion asked. The other two boys nodded. “It sounds like a job for the Usopp pirates!!” they cheered in unison. 

“Hey!” I snapped, feeling irritated. “I get that you’re excited, but our Captain could be in danger, so get your little asses in gear!” I growled out, and they jumped, sweat rolling down their faces. “Yes ma’am!!” they saluted. 

Nami looked towards me in surprise, but I ignored her. I might be a playful person, but I don’t joke around when my nakama are in trouble. Time to go find Captain.


	14. Usopp's a Shitty Liar

I sighed with annoyance, trying to block out the myriad of voices around me loudly arguing with one another. Nami, Zoro and the three boys had been trying to figure out where Luffy was for the past ten minutes, and their voices had steadily gotten louder. The discussion wasn't getting anywhere, and my patience was basically gone. Everyone continued walking down the path, Nami and Zoro shouting over each other while the three boys had their own discussion.

I let everyone pass me, watching them walk on, and plopped myself on the ground. I closed my eyes and tried to hone in on my captain's energy. A minute passed, and I was unable to fully block out the sound of everyone's voices. Growling, I opened my eyes and snapped out, "Can everyone just shut the hell up?!" Blessed silence washed over the area as the five bickering humans turned around to stare at me.

"If you guys gimme a second, I can find him," I continued, voice down to a normal volume now. "How the hell.." Nami started, scowling at me, but I merely shushed her. Closing my eyes again, I blocked out everyone's presence around me, and concentrated on the multiple energy sources I was feeling.

I was always able to feel energy. It was beyond overwhelming to me at first, especially right after I'd eaten the fruit. I'd become so bombarded with everyone's aura that I'd started screaming, holding my head and crying out like a person possessed. Brother had panicked and knocked me out, not knowing what else to do. I was 10 when I'd discovered and eaten the fruit, so by now, I'd had 6 years of practice. The presence of energy was so natural to me now that it became background noise so to speak.

I concentrated on Luffy's energy, thinking of his personality. Optimistic, energetic, hopeful, sunny, warm….My eyes shot open.

"Got him," I announced and shot up from my sitting position. "He's at the bottom of a cliff. There's a single tree sitting on top of the cliff, and it's overlooking the shore," I offered the information to the boys, hoping they would know the location I was talking about. The three boys stared at me in amazement, then looked at each other, nodding. "We know where that is!" they said at the same time, and I grinned.

The boys led us to a cliff overlooking the shore. It was on the opposite side of the island that we'd docked our ship at. "Our Captain always comes here to think," one of the kids said, scattering around the small cliff's edge. "I don't think that Straw Hat guy is here," one of them said, frowning.

"No, he's here," I said confidently, and kneeled down at the very edge of the cliff, peering down. "Aela, be careful,' Zoro advised, and I waved him off, searching. Sure enough, directly under the cliff was our captain. I gasped when I spotted him, and frantically shouted to the others, "I found him!" They surrounded me and looked down for themselves, all of them gasping as well at the sight. "Luffy!" Zoro shouted, worry filling his voice.

We hurried down the slope that would lead to the shore. Upon seeing his body up close, panic shot through me. Luffy's head was smashed face first into the ground. His body was twisted into the weirdest position, even for a rubber man. His back was on the sand, but his legs were thrown over his head. He resembled an actual pretzel.

"How did this happen?!" Nami's voice was notably upset. Normally I would've teased her for it, but this wasn't the time.

Is he…. I started in my head, but mentally punched myself. This is Luffy. There's no way this is gonna take him out. "Forgot for a second that he was a rubberman…" I said quietly, and Zoro grunted in agreement, shoulders relaxing just a tad. Looks like he had as well.

I walked towards Captain, holding my breath in anticipation. He can't be dead. When I got close enough, I slowly kneeled down towards him, my eyebrows furrowing when I heard something that sounded like…

"Snoring," I breathed out, sitting back on my heels. "He's snoring." The others were understandably confused, until the confirmation of my words appeared in the form of Luffy letting out a very loud snore, making me let out a snort of laughter. "He must've knocked himself unconscious when he fell," I speculated, looking up at Brother and Nami with a grin.

"Lazy ass," Zoro smirked, looking relieved. I turned back to the rubber man to try and wake him. "Captain.." I shook him roughly. Nothing. I puffed my cheeks up for a second in thought, and then a very dangerous thought hit me.

I snatched Luffy's hat off his head, and spoke in a deep, gruff voice. "This is a nice hat here...I could probably sell it…" Suddenly, I had a hand wrapped tightly around my wrist. I winced but then grinned when I noticed Luffy's eyes had shot open.

"Hat?" he spoke, then it registered who was in front of him. "Aela?" "Hey Cap!" I greeted, smiling cheekily. "Welcome back to the land of the living!" "Why'd you…" he started, grabbing the hat when I offered it to him, putting it back on his head. I interrupted, knowing what he was asking. "You weren't waking up, and I had a feeling that would work. Sorry for scaring you."

He nodded in acceptance and stood up, reaching a hand down for me. "What am I doing down here?" he asked, looking around. "Last thing I remember, Usopp and I were up there," he pointed at the edge of the cliff. "And we saw that butler guy with the really weird dude."

"Weird guy?" Nami echoed. "Must be the hypnotist," Zoro confirmed and I nodded. He'd definitely fit the bill. "That explains why Luffy was asleep down here," Nami finished. "You probably fell down, Loof" I filled in.

"Usopp and I overheard this butler and the weird guy talking about their plans to kill the Kaya girl and attack the village," Luffy explained, looking grim. "What?!" I gasped, heart starting to pound. Kaya was in danger?! "Yeah," Luffy nodded towards me. "Apparently they're in a pirate crew together."

"WHAT? They're going to kill Kaya and attack the village?!" the three boys yelled out at the same time I shouted, "Pirate crew?!"

"That's what they said," Straw Hat confirmed, "No doubt about it." "Kaya is in danger…" I trailed off, looking at Nami and Zoro. "That's why Usopp ran off like that." "He's probably gone to warn the village," Nami said, waving her hand. She turned to the kids. "The village is probably preparing to run to safety. You guys should go too."

"Yeah we should go!" they agreed. "Yes, we need to get all of our belongings!" Onion exclaimed. "Our treasures!"

"My books!"

"My piggy bank!"

"My toys!"

They all looked at each other and shared a firm nod, suddenly darting off towards the village.

"Be careful!" I shouted after them, worried. What if they get into trouble? "Shishishishi," Luffy laughed. "Don't worry about them, Aela. They'll be fi- OH NO!" A horrified look appeared on the rubber boy's face. "What?!" Zoro, Nami, and I shouted, alarmed.

"We need to get to the meat shop before they pack up and run away! Quick! Follow the kids!" he screamed. He then shot off like a rocket, leaving the three of us in the dust. "WHAT?!" the three of us shouted, running after him.

We all quickly caught up with the children. The sun was starting to set and we found an orange glowed Usopp standing in the middle of the road. His head was lowered and he looked very lonely. "CAPTAIN USOPP!" the boys cried, and Long Nose's head shot up.

"LUFFY?!" he gasped, taking in the teenager's appearance. "You're alive?!" "Alive?" the jovial boy responded. "Of course!" he chuckled. "I just woke up!"

"He was asleep the whole time!" Onion reported. "Anyways, Captain! We heard everything!" "Let's hurry and tell everyone about the pirates!" "Tell..everyone..?" Usopp whispered, voice going weak. A dark look came over his face then, and my eyebrows creased in concern. "Usopp?" I said softly, slowly walking towards the taller boy. Before I could make it to him though, he threw back his head and let out a loud laugh.

"Hahahahaha, I'm lying as usual!" he said, and I winced at the fake emotion. "That butler pissed me off so I decided to hurt him by claiming he was a pirate." The kids started to laugh along with their captain. "I see. So you put the straw hat guy up to it too!" they concluded.

I sat back on my heels and studied the group in front of me, stuffing my hands in my pockets. They were all laughing with giant smiles on their faces, but the obviously fake laughter was making my stomach hurt. Just then, the laughter from the children died off and they frowned disapprovingly at their captain as they walked past him. "What?" Usopp questioned, looking worried. "What's wrong?"

"I think less of you now," one of the kids answered, and I winced. How hurtful. "Even if that guy is a jerk, I never thought you'd actually go and hurt someone," another added with a shake of his head. "I'm going home."

"Me too…" "Me three." Usopp's face closed off even more, and the tense atmosphere made me take steps back until I was standing between Luffy and Zoro. Usopp watched as his three followers walked off, abandoning him. "Luffy…" he spoke then, forcing another smile on his face. "Just forget what you saw okay?" he requested, looking at my captain. "Just leave this place and pretend nothing has happened. This has nothing to do with you guys."

"Nope," Luffy immediately replied, and Usopp's smile twitched. "What do you mean no? I'm saying that this problem doesn't concern you. We can't get you a ship and there's nothing in this town for you anyways so you might as well go."

"Nope," Straw Hat repeated again, and this time, Usopp's smile wiped off his face. "OY!" he shouted, storming towards us. Zoro made to pivot in front of me, but I'd had enough.

"Stop lying," I scoffed, and he jerked, turning towards me. I stuffed my hands in my pockets and looked at him, anger showing very clearly on my face. "What did you.." he argued. "Stop. Lying," I repeated, and my face turned fierce.

"We know you don't really want us to go, Usopp" I continued, taking a step towards him. "You're lying to protect us and you lied to your crew to protect them. "That's not true," he scoffed, turning in my direction, walking towards me until we were nose to nose...well, we would've been nose to nose, but I was short, so he just towered over me. I looked up at him though challengingly. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Zoro tense and make as though he were going to move, but a head shake from Luffy stopped him. The swordsman rocked back on his heels, jaw tense.

"You're a shit liar," I spat, and the curly haired boy's fists tightened. He opened his mouth to retort, but before he could say anything, I grabbed his left arm, holding it up for all to see. Usopp's wrist guard had turned red with blood from what I assumed was a gunshot wound. Usopp hissed in pain, glaring down at me even harder. I glared back for a second, but then my look softened. "Tell the truth, Usopp." Let us help you, I finished in my head, and my eyes looked up at the boy pleadingly.

It was completely silent for a few seconds, Usopp's fists tightening even more and beginning to shake. For a second I thought he was going to punch me, but then…

"I...I don't know what to do.." he said in defeat, head hanging low; his body became limp as the aggression dropped out of him. I breathed a sigh of relief, letting his arm drop and taking a step back. "Shishishishi," I heard, and looked over my shoulder. "Lean on us," Luffy answered simply, jumping into the scene, and Usopp stared at Captain. "We're friends, right?" Luffy finished, and I looked back at Usopp.

A slow smile grew on his face, tears built up in his eyes but didn't fall. He nodded sharply, and I gave him a wide smile. "Come on," Luffy said, "Let's go talk on the shore." "Okay…" Usopp agreed, and we began walking.

Nami stood alone for a second, looking at me with a very weird expression on her face. Her face was completely closed off, and I gave her a concerned look. Her eyes spaced out for a second, and then she physically shook her head a little, looking at me one final time before hurrying after Luffy.

"Hey." I turned around at the grunt. My brother was peering at me with approval. "Good job, brat," he said, nudging me gently as he passed me. I stood there staring after him for a second, pride filling me. I shot a giant grin towards his back, trying not to do a little happy dance. I couldn't deny that it felt good to know my brother was proud of me. I looked up to him after all. "C'mon Aela!" he called, and I jumped. "Coming!"

"Who shot you?" I asked immediately as soon as we'd gotten settled by the cliffs. We stood around Usopp as he sat on a rock, staring darkly out at the sea. The sun had completely set, and the moon was slowly beginning to rise in its place. Usopp glanced at the 4 strangers that stood before him. These...pirates...that were willing to hear him out when no one else would.

"Was it Kevin?" I continued, and everyone stopped and looked at me strangely. "Who the hell's Kevin?" Zoro questioned, and I looked at him disappointingly. "The penguin looking dude from before! The butler!" I finished, shaking my head and tutting. "You need to pay more attention, Brother," I shook my finger at him like a disappointed mother. "THAT'S NOT HIS NAME, BRAT!" he shouted, grabbing me in a head lock and grinding his fist into my skull, making me cry out and grab onto his arm.

"Klahadore didn't do this," Usopp's voice broke through brother and I's….conversation, and the two of us stopped fighting. Zoro released me and I stepped away from him, huffing and fixing my hair back into place. "It was Merry, Kaya's other butler. He was trying to protect her from me...They thought I was lying, and when I tried to take Kaya away, they accused me of trying to kidnap her." I winced as a feeling of betrayal and heartache ran through me. Poor Usopp..to have no one believe you…

"I tried to warn everyone," he continued. "I told them exactly what I saw, but none of them believed me. Not even Kaya…" he finished, giving a self deprecating snort. "It's because I'm a liar. I should've known.."

"Okay, but the facts are still the facts…" Nami cut in. The orange haired girl understood why no one believed him. The fact of the matter was that Usopp did lie quite often, and the truth that he wanted people to believe was a hard pill to swallow, even if it came from someone much more honest than the curly haired man. "Pirates are really coming, aren't they?"

"They're coming all right," he confirmed. "But no one will believe me! They all think tomorrow is going to be another peaceful day…" Usopp grit his teeth in anger, rising from his rock. "That's why I'm going to stop the pirates at the beach tomorrow and make sure this stays a lie! I'll meet those pirates and fight them off! Then I'll have a real tall tale to tell! I may be a liar, but this time my tale will come true!"

He held up his wounded arm then, as if taking an oath. "Even if I get shot in the arm, or chased off with brooms, this village is my home and I'm going to protect everyone! I've got to protect my neighbors!" As strong as the boy sounded then, it was obvious he was terrified, for in the next second, his voice started to shake. "There's not much time to plan...but I refuse to let everyone get murdered!"

The crew observed the curly haired teenager in front of them. He had fallen back down to sit on his rock, tears flowing down his cheeks, and his shoulders were shaking as he tried to hold in his sobs. Even after being called a liar, being betrayed by those he loved, being shot by those he trusted….he was willing to sacrifice himself for his village. The four of us looked at each other, and without having to say anything, a decision was made.

"You're a pretty cool guy, Long Nose," I spoke, and his head shot up towards me. "Even if you are a shitty liar," I giggled. "Hey!" he gave a weak protest, but Zoro cut in. "Pushing your henchmen away and going into battle alone," he said approvingly, adjusting the swords at his side.

"Just so you know," Nami cut in sternly, "I call dibs on the pirates' treasure."

"We'll help you out," Luffy grinned, cracking his knuckles and winding up his arms. Usopp stared at them all, dumbfounded. "Wha….You guys...you're willing to fight beside me? Why?"

"Cuz you'll lose by yourself," Luffy said, just as blunt as ever. "You're hopelessly outnumbered." Zoro eyed the sharp shooter, noting his shaking legs and voice. "You also look pretty scared."

Usopp shot up from his seat, outraged at the accusation. "Me? Scared?! HA! Th-that's a lau-laugh! I'm perfectly okay with bad guys, outnumbered or not! I'll be completely fi-fine! I'm Captain Usopp, brave warrior of the sea!"

"More like not able to hold in your pee…" I muttered, sending a pointed look down at his knees that were knocking together as his legs trembled with fear. "Oy!" Long Nose shook his fist at me. "These are Klahadore's pirates we're dealing with!" he snapped. "Of course I'm scared! I don't want your sympathy! You guys can leave! Leave!"

"Pipe down Pinocchio!" I shouted back, tick mark popping up on my forehead. Ignoring his remark, What'd you call me short stack?! I continued, "Who said anything about sympathy?"

"We're helping because we think you're honourable," Zoro cut in, grabbing the back of my shirt. I sent a confused look back at him, until the curly haired boy's words registered in my mind. "Short stack?!" I growled, making a rush towards the boy, but Zoro's grip on my shirt tightened, and he pulled me back with a sigh. "Can you not rile her up?" he asked, voice tired. "As if we'd put our lives on the line for sympathy," Luffy frowned, actually looking insulted. "Don't be ridiculous!"

New tears began to flow down Usopp's face and I grinned, throwing my hands behind my head in a relaxed stance, allowing Zoro to relax as well, releasing his grip on my shirt. "You're a really shitty liar Long Nose, but your emotions are actually pretty straight forward." He looked at me with a sweet smile, and even though we'd been at each other's throats twice now, I knew that we'd get along great in the future. I argued with Usopp like I argued with Zoro-nii.

Because of that though, I wasn't quite finished talking…. "You could say…" I continued, with a sly grin, "that your heart is as big as your nose!" He anime dropped in exasperation, and I burst into laughter, hearing Luffy join me.

"They call him 'Kuro of the Hundred Plans,' " Usopp explained to us. We were sitting around on the cliff again, and night had fallen completely. I could hear the sea flowing gently in the background, along with chirps, hums, and murmurs of the night life around us. "He was famous for his intricate plans to raid villages that never failed. He was apparently caught and executed by the Marines years ago, but that was obviously just a double or something," he shivered. "Just think...we've lived in the midst of a killer like that for all of these years…"

"He must be a pretty amazing fighter to have a reputation like that," I cut in, and I couldn't keep the slight admiration from my voice. "I heard he could sneak onto a Marine ship and slaughter them all before they even knew what was going on," Nami explained. "And his pirates were called the 'Black Cat Pirates,' " Usopp rounded the conversation out.

It was silent for a bit, all of us pondering their words. "So…" I spoke up softly, voice tense, and looked up to everyone peering at me. "He's a ninja pirate…" I ended, nodding seriously to myself, ignoring the reactions around me. Luffy chuckled while Zoro and Nami sighed. Usopp just gave me a super confused look. "Seriously though," I continued, "seems like our only issue is that they outnumber us. They plan on raiding the village, so we just need to stop them before they get to the village," I concluded.

"You make it sound so simple," Nami laughed a bit and I blushed, grateful for the darkness so no one would see my red cheeks. She was right after all, the issue was obvious while the solution wasn't. I had merely stated the obvious, which everyone probably already knew; I shouldn't have said anything.

"No, Aela has a point," Usopp spoke up then, and my head shot in his direction, surprised. "We just need to come up with a plan to keep them from getting close to the village..and I think I may have an idea for that," he grinned, looking rather smug.

Usopp got up from his rock and began walking down to the beach, the rest of us following behind. "They'll attack from this beach," he told us, coming to a stop at the slope that led up between the two steep cliffs. "This is the route to the village." He pointed up at the slope, showing us the route. "They'll have to come up this pass because everywhere else is just sheer cliffs."

"We'll trap them!" I grinned, and Long Nose grinned back at me. "Exactly!" "Wow!" Luffy laughed. "It'll be super easy then!"

"Don't get too excited," Usopp interjected, frowning now. "We'll have to fight like an army." He looked out at the 4 of us. "What can you guys do?"

"I slice." Zoro.

"I shield." Me.

"I stretch." Luffy.

"I steal." Nami.

"I run and hide." …..Usopp.

"YOU'VE GOTTA FIGHT!" the group yelled at him, and Usopp raised his hands, ducking his head to protect himself as Nami and I bonked him on the head. "I was kidding! I was kidding!" "Nuh uh," I scoffed, rolling my eyes at him. "Actually," Usopp continued after shooting me a glare, "I think I know of something else that could give us the edge in this fight, but I gotta run back to my house to get it."

"Hurry," Nami advised, looking at the moon. "We want to be more than ready for these guys before dawn." Usopp nodded. "Right. Wait here and I'll be back before you know it!"

**Author's Note:**

> Till next time!


End file.
